Cape Brandy Pudding

I stumbled across this traditional South African Cape Brandy Pudding recipe amongst my late mother’s papers. I now make this every now and again to get a little taste of home.  It is a real hit!

(serves 6, but in our house, it serves only 2)

Ingredients

250g dates, roughly chopped

250ml water

5ml bicarbonate of soda

100g butter, softened

200ml caster suger

1 egg

250ml plain flour

5ml baking powder

100g pecan nuts, chopped

For the syrup

250ml sugar

120ml water

120ml brandy

5ml vanilla essence

30ml butter

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Process

–  Preheat the oven to 180C (gas mark 4)

–  Grease an oven-proof dish

–  Combine the dates with the water in a small pot and bring to the boil

–  Remove from the heat

–  Add the bicarbonate of soda

–  Leave to cool

–  Cream together the butter, sugar and egg

–  Sift the flour and baking powder

–  Add to the creamed mix, together with the colled dates and mix well

–  Mix in the nuts

–  Pour into the greased dish

–  Bake for about an hour or until the skewer inserted into the centre, comes out clean

For the Syrup

–  Boil the sugar, water, butter and vanilla essence together for about 10 minutes

–  Add the brandy and cinnamon

–  Mix well

Serving your Cape Brandy Pudding

Serve your pudding hot with the syrup poured over it and top with some whipped cream, custard or ice-cream. A perfect way to celebrate Southern Africa.

Although my mother and I didn’t bake that much together, she taught me so much about life when we did spend time in the kitchen, including surviving the 2020 Corona Virus Lockdown