The Best Malva Pudding
This Malva pudding recipe handed down to me by my aunt, delivers the most delicious, rich pudding drenched in syrup. This classic from South Africa is the ultimate warm, comforting dessert and is perfect served with custard and cream.
What is Malva pudding?
Malva pudding is a traditional South African dessert, very similar to British sticky toffee pudding in concept. A cake-like baked pudding drenched in sauce/syrup and served warm with custard or cream. This Malva Pudding Recipe is made with apricot jam/apricot preserves, white vinegar, sugar, flour and eggs with a sweet sauce is poured over the top the moment it comes out of the oven.
Ingredients and Substitutions
- Butter.
- Sugar. I use granulated sugar but brown sugar can be used as substitute.
- Apricot jam/apricot preserves. I use smooth apricot jam but whole fruit jam can be used too.
- White vinegar.
- Flour.
- Milk.
- Eggs.
- Bicarbonate of soda/baking soda.
- Salt.
For the sauce
- Sugar.
- Golden Syrup.
- Vanilla extract.
- Butter.
How to make Malva pudding
- Prepare the pudding batter: Melt together the jam, butter, sugar and vinegar. Stir the dry ingredients together in a medium mixing bowl. Add the dry ingredients and milk to the butter mixture, alternating, until the mixture is smooth. Whisk in the eggs.
- Bake: Pour the batter into a greased baking dish then place in a preheated oven and bake for 30 minutes until golden brown and a skewer inserted comes out clean.
- Prepare the syrup: Combine all the syrup ingredients in a small saucepan then bring to a boil and simmer together for 5 minutes. Once the pudding comes out of the oven, pour over the sponge and allow to soak for 10 minutes.
- Serve: Serve the warm pudding with custard, cream or a scoop of ice cream.
Tips for the best Malva Pudding
- Ensure all the ingredients are at room temperature before making the batter.
- Don’t over-bake the pudding. It should be moist and tender.
- Pour the hot syrup over the pudding immediately as it comes out of the oven for maximum absorption.
- Using golden syrup in the sauce really enhances the flavor. Maple syrup or honey can be used as substitute.
Can you freeze Malva pudding?
Malva pudding freezes very well. Cool the baked pudding, wrap with foil and freeze for up to 3 months. Reheat from frozen for 30 minutes or until hot throughout then pour over extra syrup to make sure it’s super moist. Malva pudding can also be made in advance and kept in the fridge for up to a day in advance. Reheat before serving.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons smooth apricot jam/apricot preserves
- 2 teaspoons white vinegar
- 2 cups flour
- 2 cups milk
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda baking soda
- pinch of salt
for the syrup
- 1½ cups sugar
- ½ cup boiling water
- 4 tablespoons golden syrup you can also substitute maple syrup/honey
- 1 cup unsalted butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- To make the pudding, pre-heat the oven to 180°C/350°F and grease a 30cm/11in baking dish.
- In a saucepan set over medium-high heat melt together the butter, sugar, apricot jam and vinegar until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is smooth. Remove from the heat and allow to cool for 5 minutes then pour into a large mixing bowl.
- Sift the dry ingredients together then add to the butter mixture, alternating with the milk, mixing well after each addition.
- Stir in the beaten eggs.
- Pour the batter into the prepared dish and place in the oven.
- Bake for 30 minutes until the pudding is dark brown and baked through (a skewer inserted should come out clean).
- While the pudding is baking, prepare the syrup.
- Bring all the syrup ingredients to a boil and reduce the heat. Allow to simmer for 5 minutes.
- Pour the syrup over the pudding as it comes out of the oven.
- Allow to stand for 20 minutes then serve with custard or cream.
Hi,
I tried this recipe twice, and both times the butter-sugar mixture began hardening immediately after taking off the stove. The first attempt, I added the flour then milk to the mixture back and forth, but the mixture solidified in many pieces throughout the batter. The second time I tried to keep the mixture warm over the stove, but after adding the flour and milk, the batter was too dry.
You should only melt the butter and sugar together, not let it cook. You most likely cooked it for too long and the mixture became a toffee rather than just melted butter and sugar.
THE best pudding ever! Baie dankie!
Hi, mine did not come out dark. I was just wondering how to get that dark color.
The baking soda helps to create a darker colour – it might be that your baking soda is a little older? It raises the pH level which accelerates the chemical reaction also known as the Maillard reaction.
The baking soda was brand new. Strange that it stayed a light color.
Hi, beginner baker here, I am making this for the first time for a work function so I am using the 3x option.
Regarding the butter, I just want to know why in the sponge recipe you say tablespoons butter but for the syrup you say cups? Is there a difference?
Also if I premake the sponge pudding, should I wait to add the syrup until after I reheat the sponge for the function, or add half after baking and the balance of the syrup after reheating?
Ps. Would love and appreciate an answer soon as I am making this, this afternoon for friday!🙏🫣😁
Hi Kelly – I am so sorry I’m only responding now. The sauce requires a full cup of butter while the sponge only needs a few tablespoons, that’s the only reason. I would pour over half of the syrup once the pudding is baked and reserve the rest for serving.
I’m very keen on making this recipe for my Australian family. I just want to check with you if the cup measurements you use are metric, or if they’re US cups (which are 240ml, not 250ml).
I use a 250ml measure 🙂
This is the best , tried it and now we have it every weekend .
Love it
I made this pudding yesterday and it was a hit. The family loved it. I’m not a sweet tooth or a fan of dessert, but I enjoyed it. It was delicious.
The recipe is easy to follow.
I personally added cream to my syrup and it Was out of this world.
So glad you enjoyed this recipe.
Hallo, I am on holiday at the moment in the UK, I have made this malva pudding twice, one was for a party and it was a massive hit. Tomorrow, am making it again to freeze. So will make 10 batches with sauce which will be frozen separately for my daughter.
We fly back to SA on 22nd June.😊
What a lovely mother you are!
Hey, this looks delicious! I’m going to make this and take it to my aunt. Should I bake the night before, refrigerate, then reheat for 30mins at my aunt’s and add the sauce then?
Yup, that’s exactly how I would do it.
recipe says beaten eggs. Im assuming they dont need to be separated. How long must the eggs be beaten? till thick or just slightly?
Nope, just quickly whisk them to break them apart.
Hi,
Everybody really enjoyed the pudding! I just had difficulty when adding the flour and milk to the cooked batter, it started hardening.(All the ingredients were room temperature)
I then put it back on the stove to melt the sugar.
What did I do wrong? 🙁
I want to make this recipe again for a get together this weekend.
Do you mean the batter thickened up? That’s never happened to me before so I’m not sure how to assist you. The butter will thicken the batter if the ingredients added are very cold but not to the point where it will seize the batter.
Hi,
When i added the flour to the sugar mixture that was previously prepared on the stove, the sugar mixture hardened as it cooled.
Maybe I cooked the sugar mixture for too long.
That’s possible – you could’ve made more of a caramel than just allowed the ingredients to melt together.
This happened to me yesterday. Think maybe I too cooked the sugar for too long .
Hi making this recipe now should the batter be thin or thick cosni added 2 cups and found the batter a bit thin.
It’s definitely a runnier batter but not watery.
Great recipe….mine didn’t bake evenly .
centre rose too high. Wrong size dish?
It could be – could also be too hot oven temp. That can cause the edges to set before the centre gets a chance to so the middle bulges.
I made this and it was absolutely divine. So glad i didnt need cream for the sauce
Absolutely love this recipe
Delicious! Tastes like home
Can you suggest a good custard recipe to go along with the Malva pudding? Thanks
I’ll be completely honest, I always use store-bought but searching Creme Anglaise on Google is a good idea.
I’ve made it twice now, and it’s absolutely divine. Even my chef friend said that it was amazing!
Why does my pudding sink in the middle just before the I remove the pudding from the oven?
A little dip is fine as the pudding is quite moist but if it dips a lot it’s likely because you’re removing the pudding before it’s fully cooked.
Looks delicious ! Am going to make this for an African night for 20 – do I just double the ingredients and cooking time ?
You can, yes – just make sure the pudding is fully cooked by inserting a toothpick. If it comes out clean, the pudding is done.
Best malva pudding recipe so far. I replaced the flour with gluten free. It came out spongy. Delicious!!
I’m excited to try this! Is there a reason the liquid ingredients were boiled together? Thank you!
This allows the apricot jam to melt into the liquid ingredients.
Looks yummy! Do you use white or brown sugar and can I sub apple cider vinegar for the white vinegar?
I haven’t tried this but it could work.
How many eggs are needed for the sponge? Unless I’ve missed it… it just says “eggs.
In the recipe card you’ll see it states 2 eggs.
Hello! I see you used a 30cm (11 inch) rectangular pan, what is the dimension of the other side? I only have a 9x13inch pan so I’m trying to determine how to increase the recipe proportions for the extra surface area.
9×13 is perfect.
What size dish should I bake this in?
As mentioned in the recipe card: 30cm/11in.