How to Make Cottage Pudding – Vintage Dessert with Sauce

This dessert recipe that I am sharing with you today is wonderfully old fashioned and delicious. It is not a pudding in the usual sense that we think of a pudding as being. It is not a rich and creamy custard type of pudding.

What you have here instead is a lovely moist and dense cake, cut into squares and served warm with a lush Lemon & Nutmeg sauce spooned over top.

The cake itself is a simple cake . . .  quickly beaten together, with a mild lemon flavor . . . On its own it's a very plain, simple, yet moist and delicious cake.  Very good . . .  but when you spoon over the warm sauce  . . . it becomes quite remarkable!

 

This Lemon Nutmeg Sauce really makes this dessert.  It is very simple to make and very simply flavored  . . .  with fresh lemon zest and juice, freshly grated nutmeg  . . .  and mmm . . .  gorgeous dairy butter.

Together the two . . .  the cake and the sauce  . . .  become a pudding that will quickly elevate itself to the top of everyone's favorites list!

Who says delicious needs to be complicated???

 

INGREDIENTS NEEDED

TO MAKE AN OLD-FASHIONED

COTTAGE PUDDING

There really is nothing complicated here. What you have here are simple, ordinary ingredients, put together in the most delicious of ways!!

For the cake:

• 1/4 cup (55g) of white vegetable shortening
• 1 cup (190g) white sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 3/4 cup (219g) plain flour
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp lemon extract
• 2/3 cup (160ml) whole milk

For the Lemon & Nutmeg Sauce:

• 1/2 cup (95g) sugar
• 1 TBS cornstarch (corn flour) dissolved in 1/4 cup (60ml) cold water)
• pinch salt
• 1 1/4 cups (300ml) boiling water
• 3 TBS butter
• 1 tsp grated lemon zest
• 2 TBS fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

 

White shortening is a type of vegetable fat that is white in color. In North America you can use something like solid Crisco. In the U.K. you can use either White Flora or Trex. Both of these can be found in the chiller section of the grocery store.

Do not use self-rising flour, or sifted flour. This recipe is meant to use plain, all-purpose unsifted flour, simply spooned into the cup and leveled off.

If you are not fond of lemon extract, you can use a tsp of finely grated fresh lemon zest. Rub it into the sugar before creaming the sugar together with the fat in the recipe.

It is worth using fresh lemon zest and fresh lemon juice for the sauce and your own home-grated nutmeg if possible. Freshly grated nutmeg has a superior flavor!

 

HOW TO PREPARE

OLD FASHIONED COTTAGE PUDDING

As I always like to say, it's not rocket science!

TO MAKE THE CAKE PART:

1. Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Butter an 8 or 9 inch square baking tin really well. Set aside.
2. Cream together the shortening and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Beat in the egg, salt and lemon extract. Sift together the flour and baking powder. Stir this into the creamed mixture in three lots, alternating with the milk, beating well after each addition.
4. Spread into the prepared pan and bake for 35 minutes until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

 

TO MAKE THE SAUCE:

1. While the cake is baking make the sauce. Stir the sugar, salt and dissolved corn flour/water mixture together in a saucepan.
2. Slowly whisk in the boiling water and cook, stirring constantly over medium heat until the mixture comes to a full rolling boil.
3. Turn down to low and simmer for five minutes. Blend in the butter, lemon zest, nutmeg and lemon juice. Keep warm.

 

COTTAGE PUDDING FAQ

DO I NEED TO USE WHITE VEGETABLE SHORTENING?

I have never used anything but white vegetable shortening so I cannot say with any certainty that butter  would work as well with the cake. 

HOW TO STORE LEFTOVERS & REHEAT:

Wrap any cake up tightly with plastic cling wrap and store at room temperature.  Store the sauce in an airtight container in the refrigerator.  Slices of cake can be reheated gently in the microwave, for 10 seconds or so on high and the sauce can be reheated in a saucepan over low heat, or in the microwave for 60 seconds or so on high.

CAN I FREEZE THIS?

You can certainly freeze the cake part, properly wrapped, for up to three months. I do not recommend freezing the sauce as it may split.

 

A FEW OTHER

OLD-FASHIONED DESSERTS

TO ENJOY

ROLY POLY JAM PUDDING - I never bake this but what I think about that Beatrix Potter story about Tom Kitten and the Roly Poly Pudding.  No worries, no kittens have been harmed in the making of this simple old fashioned and delicious pudding! A bit stodgy. A lot comforting. An old-fashioned suet dough spread with jam, rolled up and baked. Served warm, cut into slices and drizzled abundantly with custard sauce.

CHERRY BLUSHING BETTY - A simple dessert with cherry filling on the bottom, topped with an almond cake topping and flaked almonds. This is so easy to make.  The cherry filling is already made, and you need only make the cake batter to bake over top. Served warm it is just wonderful served with a scoop of Vanilla Ice Cream on top.

 

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Yield: 6 servings

Author: Marie Rayner

Cottage Pudding

Prep time: 15 MinCook time: 35 MinTotal time: 50 Min

This isn't really a pudding at all, but a moist and delicious cake that is anything but plain, served warm and cut into squares with a fabulous nutmeg sauce spooned over top. This is a very old recipe.

Ingredients

For the cake:

• 1/4 cup (55g) of white vegetable shortening
• 1 cup (190g)white sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 3/4 cup (219g) plain flour
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp lemon extract
• 2/3 cup (160ml) whole milk

For the Lemon & Nutmeg Sauce:

• 1/2 cup (95g) sugar
• 1 TBS cornstarch (corn flour) dissolved in 1/4 cup (60ml) cold water)
• pinch salt
• 1 1/4 cups (300ml) boiling water
• 3 TBS butter
• 1 tsp grated lemon zest
• 2 TBS fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Butter an 8 or 9 inch square baking tin really well. Set aside.
2. Cream together the shortening and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Beat in the egg, salt and lemon extract. Sift together the flour and baking powder. Stir this into the creamed mixture in three lots, alternating with the milk, beating well after each addition.
4. Spread into the prepared pan and bake for 35 minutes until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
5. While the cake is baking make the sauce. Stir the sugar, salt and dissolved corn flour/water mixture together in a saucepan.
6. Slowly whisk in the boiling water and cook, stirring constantly over medium heat until the mixture comes to a full rolling boil.
7. Turn down to low and simmer for five minutes. Blend in the butter, lemon zest, nutmeg and lemon juice. Keep warm.
8. To serve cut the cake into squares and spoon some of the warm sauce over top.

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