Dessert

Mum’s fruit sponge pudding

This fruit sponge recipe was a popular pudding in Nici Wickes' household when she was growing up. You can use any stone fruit bottled in the summer, or a store-bought tin of plums will suffice too
Mum’s fruit sponge
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This recipe first appeared in New Zealand Woman’s Weekly.

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Ingredients

Method

1.Preheat oven to 180°C.
2.Pour the plums, apples, ½ cup reserved plum juice and cinnamon sticks into an ovenproof dish. Put in the oven to get hot.
3.Beat the butter and sugar until pale and creamy, then add the egg and beat well.
4.Sift in the flour and baking powder, mixing to combine. Add the milk, a tablespoon at a time, and stir until you have a dropping consistency batter (see note). Dollop the mixture over the hot fruit – it won’t cover the fruit but will spread out while cooking.
5.Cook for about 30 minutes. Test by inserting a skewer or knife into the sponge – it should come out clean when cooked.
6.Rest for 5 minutes. Mix together the cinnamon and caster sugar, then sprinkle over the cooked pudding. Serve with whipped cream, ice cream and/or custard.
  • Dropping consistency is an old-fashioned term but a good guide to the desired stiffness of cake batters. A spoonful of batter should not run off the spoon, nor stick to it, but rather it ought to drop lazily of its own accord. – Serves 4-6.
Note

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