Sticky Ginger Pudding

My friends and family have been asking me if I am really happy with my new found interest - taking photographs of food I prepare and then blogging about them. And without a second thought, I could answer with a 'yes'. While I started blogging to log my treasured recipes that could be easily accessed from any part of the world, what I didn't expect was that I would make some friends here too. Where Serah of The Captain's Kitchenette was my friend long before both of us got into blogging, Roha of Hydrebad Cuisine, Julie of Erivum Puliyum, Ambreen of Sweet and Savoury, Siri of Siri's Food Flavours and Kitchen Queen of Home Cook Food are my internet friends, who I feel have the same passion for food as I have and are constant visitors to my blog and keep encouraging me through my posts and are always loading me with some fantastic recipes and ideas that I love to read and try out at home too. Yes! For the introvert I am, who takes months before I become friends with people I meet, these ladies, their blogs and food have become an integral part of my life.

And the list is growing; at a slow pace; but I am sure that I meet people who are passionate about food. In the last week, I was fortunate enough to come across Anu of Anu's Healthy Kitchen and Priya of Cook Like Priya. We exchanged a few words and there I could feel the birth of some new friendship in my life. It really is a blessing to meet you all and I am hopeful that I will meet more food freaks here.

So today, I want to end these mellowing thoughts with a quick and simple dessert - Warm Sticky Ginger Pudding (Source: Australian Women's Weekly adapted). It was a surprise dessert to me because it uses dry ginger (called chukku in Malayalam), the flavour putting a question mark into my head when I first tried it years back. There is no denying the fact that you have to develop your taste to this dessert but once caught in its circle, you will keep wanting more. Serve these warm puddings with luscious vanilla ice-cream and there you have a perfect dessert which is just as good as the Sticky Date Puddings.

Makes: 1 x 8-inch Cake or 12 muffin-sized cakes
Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Baking Time: 40 minutes for 8-inch Cake or 15 - 20 mins for muffin cakes

Ingredients

• 185g plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 165g brown sugar
• 125g unsalted butter, softened
• 2 eggs
• 160 ml buttermilk or natural yoghurt

Sticky Brown Sauce

• 30g unsalted butter
• 50 g brown sugar
• 60g white sugar
• 1 tbsp milk

Method
1. Pre-heat fan-forced oven to 150°C. Line an 8-inch cake pan or 12-hole muffin pan with baking paper.
2. Sift together all the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl. Add the remaining ingredients and beat with electric mixer on low speed until ingredients are combined. Increase speed to medium and beat about 2 mins - until mixture is smooth and pale in colour. Pour mixture into prepared pans. Bake for 40 mins for an 8-inch cake pan or 15 - 20 mins for muffin pan; until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Stand cake in pan for 10 mins before turning it out.
3. In the meantime, prepare brown sauce by stirring all ingredients for the sauce in a saucepan over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Then bring to boil and simmer for 2 minutes. 

Serve warm cakes drizzled with brown sauce with a generous amount of vanilla ice-cream.

Note:- This cake can be heated in the microwave for a few seconds before serving.  

Variation: To make this as a Butterscotch Cake Pudding substitute ground ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg with vanilla extract and follow the same recipe.

Sending this to Bake Fest#13 founded by Vardhini of CooksJoy and co-hosted by Anu of Anu's Healthy Kitchen.