black forest pudding cake

Have you ever made a pudding cake? No? OH MY... that's a problem that needs to be fixed right now. Pudding cakes are awesome. Dash away any fears you may have about jello crystals because I'm going to let you in on a little secret: there is no actual pudding in a pudding cake. These magical wonders occur when you pour boiling water over a thick batter before baking. The end result is a moist cake that has developed its own sauce as part of the baking process. It's kind of like a delicious, cherry chocolatey science experiment!


black forest pudding cake
adapted from Canadian Living's Chocolate Pudding Cake

topping
juice from 1 can of cherries, topped up with water to make 1 cup, boiling
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder

cake
3/4 cup all purpose flour
2 tbsp cocoa
1 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 egg, beaten
2 tbsp oil
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 x 398 ml can of bing cherries (or enough to loosely cover the bottom of your pan)

Preheat your oven to 350ºF. Grease an 8", 2 litre cake pan or baking dish. Spread your cherries on the bottom of the dish.

In a medium sized bowl, combine flour, cocoa and baking powder.

In a small bowl, stir together sugar, milk, egg, oil and vanilla. Pour the liquid mixture into the dry mixture and stir until incorporated. Your batter will be alarmingly thick, don't fret! Spread the batter over the cherries.

In another small bowl, make the topping. Whisk together the boiling cherry juice, cocoa and brown sugar. When the sugar has dissolved, pour the topping gently over the batter, then place in the oven and bake for 45 minutes. When it is done, the top will be solid, but there should all kinds of delicious saucy goodness around the edges. Best enjoyed with vanilla ice cream, whipped cream or a glass of cold milk!