South African Malva Pudding - With Love Kitty (2024)

Malva pudding is a delicious South African baked dessert. It is a caramelized cake that is made with apricot jam and doused in melted butter and cream sauce as soon as it comes out of the oven.

I have tried many malva puddings but my favourite version is this recipe. This malva pudding recipe was given to me by my Great Aunty Val. Aunty Val is now 87 years old and is my recipe reservoir for traditional South African desserts.

Easy Malva Pudding Recipe

This is a simple baked dessert recipe that can be baked as a large pudding or in individual ramekins or dariole moulds. The recipe and the bake time shared in this blog post is for a large pudding baked in an oven dish.

If you would prefer to bake individual malva puddings you most certainly can! Set the oven timer for 15 to 20 minutes and checking the malva pudding at this stage. Ensuring that the mini baked dessert is cooked through.

It is important to remember that the time needed to bake these puddings will depend on the size of your chosen moulds. Namely, how deep and wide they are, so bear this in mind if you will be baking mini malva puddings.

Lastly, if you do choose to bake this recipe as mini malva puddings. Add the cream and butter sauce to the mini pudding when it is still in the mould. This is so that the puddings can soak up the sauce before you remove and plate this traditional South African baked dessert.

What is the Most Famous South African Dessert?

Malva puddings take the crown for the most famous South African dessert. Although there are a couple of contenders, such as milktert, koeksisters, and peppermint crisp tarts. This is the dessert that is seen most often on menus around the country.

If you have never visited South Africa, chances are there is a safari portion of your trip planned. And stress not, because this baked dessert is almost guaranteed to be featured on one of your dinner menus.

What is Malva Pudding?

The best way to describe malva pudding is to compare it to a sticky toffee pudding. It is similar in that this pudding is also baked in an oven dish and covered in a sticky sauce after it is cooked. However, it is less sweet than a sticky toffee pudding and the added apricot jam and bicarbonate of soda gives this dessert a distinct taste.

Like other baked desserts, malva pudding is drenched in a buttery sauce as it comes out of the oven. The warm cake soaks up this sauce and this is what makes this baked dessert deliciously moist. Regardless of this though, malva pudding is almost always served with ice cream or custard. Or if you are feeling very adventurous, both!

What is Malva Pudding Made From?

The ingredients needed to make this malva pudding are simple and easy to find. The pudding ingredients you will need are

• Granulated sugar
• Self-raising flour
• Milk
• Apricot jam
• Bicarbonate of soda
• Salt
• Vanilla extract
• Vinegar
• Eggs
• Unsalted butter
• Ideal milk

To make this version of the butter and cream sauce for this malva pudding recipe, this recipe uses ideal milk instead of cream. It gives the sauce a wonderfully rich flavour and also means you don’t have to worry about having fresh cream in your fridge.

In the recipe there is an option of adding ½ cup of Tia Maria to the pouring sauce, I have decided to omit this for this recipe. However, you are more than welcome to turn this into a boozy malva pudding, why not!

I've topped my malva with mini meringues and homemade honeycomb. You can definitely leave yours as is or top it with anything you might have in your pantry!

How to Make Malva Pudding

The method to make this malva pudding is very straightforward, as goes as follows

• Start by beating the eggs and sugar until they are pale and creamy
• Next add the jam, salt, and vinegar. Try to loosen the jam before adding it to the egg mixture to ensure that it mixes well into the batter
• Gradually add the flour into the egg mixture, make sure to do this in batches to avoid any lumps. Stop the mixer now and again to scrape done the sides of the bowl and make sure that the batter is beating evenly.
• Add the bicarbonate of soda to the milk, in a jug and then pour this into the mixture with the motor running on a slow speed. This ensures that you will have a smooth lump free batter
• Bake in a buttered dish, make sure you butter your dish properly and I recommend using butter to coat your oven dish rather than cook and spray or oil as this will lend to the flavour of the bake.
• To make the sauce you will combine sugar, butter, water and ideal milk in a pot over medium heat. Make sure the sugar has melted and that the sauce is hot before you pour this over the baked malva pudding.
• When pouring the sauce, do this very slowly. You want the sauce to be able to seep into the warm malva pudding so that they entire cake is moist, not just the bottom where the sauce settles.

This is one of my favourite South African recipes and even more special since it has been passed through our family. I hope you enjoy making this malva pudding recipe as much as I did. Tag me in your creations on Instagram and leave a comment below if you enjoyed this recipe!

looking to make more South African desserts? Try this classic milktart recipe or this delicious caramel and peppermint crisp trifle

Happy Baking

With Love,

Kitty

📖 Recipe