Politically Incorrect Pudding

Today I finally made James his Valentines cake. He decided to cox all of the day itself, so I delayed my cake making! I made him a dish of the delcious but unfortunately named 'Brown Betty' which I used to make with my grandma as a child. She, in turn, used to make it with her grandma in Timaru, New Zealand, in the 1940s. A few weeks ago I had a sudden recollection of how delightful it was, and wrote to her to ask for the recipe.

Its very simple and involves floating blobs of chocolatey cake mixture in a sugar syrup, then baking it. Dark brown muscovado sugar is essential to give it the right taste.



Boil

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/2 cup water

for 1-2 minutes. Set aside.

Beat in a bowl

• 2 oz butter (softened)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar

Add

• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 cup self-raising flour
• 2 tablespoons cocoa
• 1/2 cup chopped dates and walnuts

Pour hot syrup into dish and drop mixture in large spoonfuls.
Bake for half an hour at Gas Mark 4