Malva pudding is Cape Town’s favourite dessert. It’s the perfect sweet follow-up to a great braai or potjiekos, and feels terrifically celebratory even just as a simple Tuesday treat.
If you’ve never had a good malva pudding, you’re probably not based in South Africa. It is, after all, a bit of a staple food here. But not to worry! Even if you’re not based in our beautiful country, you can enjoy its tastes. This recipe, with its extra apricot jam, and simple cream-based sauce, is the best malva pudding recipe I’ve had. And it’s so easy to prepare!
How to make malva pudding
The best way to make it is while having a lot of fun – and if you have a choice in the matter, using your grandma’s kitchen. Disregard the above butter slicing. That’s for another recipe!
One of the best things about Malva pudding is its simplicity. While its rich, toffee-like taste would suggest it requires fancy ingredients or complex baking processes, you’d be surprised! Aside from the cream, malva pudding ingredients are all things you’ll have in your cupboard. And I’ve made this pudding with nothing but a fork and a mug as my baking utensils before. So you know it’s not a difficult one.
Before making your malva poeding, keep in mind that it’s best served warm, after 10-15 minutes to really let the cream sauce soak into the pudding. You’ll pour your sauce on right after taking it out of the oven, so you don’t have too long to wait!
For many of my recipes, I prefer to halve the sugar content recommended. But for malva pudding, the sugar (which you may baulk at, since it equals the flour quantity) is vital. It’s the sugar that gives the pudding its sticky toffee-taste, and with less, you may find it’s a bit too bready.
It’s high-calorie but made from fresh, simple ingredients. And I’ve found that for most, that’s the most important thing.
Where does it come from?
There are actually a number of theories around the origin of malva pudding. We can all agree (including the authorities on matters of pudding origins) that the desert comes from South Africa. But what its name stems from is a bit unclear.
My favourite theory, and the most popular, is that Malva pudding was once flavoured with the leaves of geranium, which, in Afrikaans, translates to Malva. But some say it got its name from a woman called Malva. And others, that it was flavoured with Malvasia wine.
Malva Pudding
