Chocolate Sponge Self-Saucing Pudding

On a cold Winter's night, there's nothing more satisfying than an indulgent and warming Chocolate self-saucing Pudding. The only thing that comes close for me is my self-saucing Sticky Date Pudding. When a male friend of ours who loves dessert came over for dinner during the week, this pudding came to mind. There's not a lot of fuss required with making this pudding. The batter is simple to make, and then the topping and sauce ingredients can be added just before popping it into the oven. It's just a matter of remembering to put the dish in the oven before sitting down to eat, and after a glass of wine and some pre-dinner conversation, well let's just say, oops, it's easy to forget it.  I remembered only 10 minutes after sitting down to eat though, phew, and magically it was still cooked perfectly just as I started to clear the plates away after the main meal. 

Mid-week dinners are allowed to be slightly more casual don't you think, and this pudding ticks all the boxes perfectly. My only issue is that she's not that photogenic, but then with a dessert like this one there just isn't the time to fiddle around setting up for the perfect photo. Eat it while it's hot, and while there's still plenty of sauce is my motto. Because if it's left too long, some of that soothing sauce will soak into the cake, as with all self-saucing puddings. However what I love about this pudding is that there is plenty of chocolate sauce for everyone. I generally have the sponge batter made and in the dish and ready to cook, with the oven turned on, about an hour before we plan to eat, allowing enough time to finish preparing the main course, have a drink and relax. Then it's cooked close to when we have finished eating, and can be left on the bench for  5-10 minutes, to cool down slightly, without the sauce being absorbed into the sponge cake. Let's be honest, a self-saucing chocolate pudding without enough chocolate sauce is a huge disappointment don't you think?

Mr. HRK eating leftovers the following day with Neapolitan ice-cream

The other great thing about  this dessert is that no special shopping is needed for ingredients. These ingredients are staples really for people who cook. I decided to make it, all the ingredients were on hand, so the whole process was pretty seamless. Given that Mr. HRK volunteered to cook pizza, one of his specialties, I felt that it was a relaxing mid-week dinner all in all. Our guest took some leftovers home with him as well so he was pretty happy.

Let's cook:

Equipment:

Electric mixer and a 6 cup ovenproof dish.

Set oven to 180 deg. C, fan forced.

Ingredients:

60 g butter, softened

1/2 cup castor sugar

1 egg

1 cup self-raising flour (or 1 cup plain flour + 2 teaspoons baking powder)

1/4 cup cocoa

1/2 cup full cream milk

1/4 teaspoon salt

Chocolate Sauce:

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup castor sugar

1 1/2 cups very hot, near boiling, water

3 tablespoons cocoa

Method:

Cream butter and sugar together with your electric mixer.

Add beaten egg and beat in slowly.

Sift the flour and cocoa together into a separate bowl, then add the flour and the milk alternately to the creamed butter until well mixed. 

Spoon into a greased 6-cup ovenproof dish.

Combine sugars and cocoa for sauce and sprinkle over the batter in the dish.

Pour the hot water gently over the top of the cake batter, and bake in 180 deg. C fan forced oven for 35-40 minutes.

Serve warm with ice-cream or mascarpone.

Recipes for my other delicious self-saucing puddings can be found at these links:

Self-saucing Sticky Date Pudding

Lemon Delicious Pudding

Warm wishes and I hope your weekend has been enjoyable.

Pauline