Steamed Cherry Pudding
Osoulo Lejeune
Steamed pudding, which is very popular in England and Ireland, is cake batter that is steamed rather than baked in an oven. By steaming this cake, you are introducing a lot of moisture instead of using an oven, which uses dry heat and may dry out other types of cake.
Now, depending on where in the world you live, you might call this a 'pudding', for example, in the United Kingdom, these types of cakes are referred to as puddings because of the type of bowl used in cooking and the method of cooking too, which is steaming.
This site contains affiliate links. I may receive a commission for purchases made through these links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. For more information, check Privacy Policy.
For those of you who aren't familiar with steaming cakes, or puddings, I've given some easy instructions with photos on how to make a cover for the pudding during steaming, and of course, if you're familiar with this, simply skip that part of the instructions. I hope those of you who haven't done this before find the photos helpful!
Well, look at it this way, you won't be able to burn or over brown your cake! Here's another of our steamed cakes, it's a Chinese recipe called Ma Lai Go, and often served as part of Dim Sum. It's soft, light and absolutely delicious!
Traditionally, steamed puddings are served warm with custard. We have a lovely recipe for homemade custard. For this steamed cherry cake, you can serve with custard, vanilla ice cream or simply eat on its own.
If you're making this steamed cherry cake ahead, you can cover it and keep chilled for a day and then simply pop in the microwave to warm up and then serve. It will also freeze well too. Again, allow to defrost and microwave for about a minute if warming the whole cake then serve.
I've made this recipe by hand, simply using a spatula to mix the ingredients. No need to use an electric mixer. Just make sure your butter is softened before you start and it will all mix very easily.
The key is to make sure your bowl is the right size to fit inside the multi cooker. I have only recently purchased my multi cooker (and I love it!). I didnt have a pudding bowl to fit so I bought one as most of my baking equipment is in a storage box right now (moving house soon!).
So, getting back to this delicious Steamed Cherry Cake recipe, this is a lovely dessert to serve to guests and equally, to have for a weekend dessert. It's flexible any time of year. In the summer months, you can eat it chilled with some ice cream and in the winter months, serve warm with some delicious custard.
2. Grease the inside of the pudding bowl and place the cut out piece of parchment paper in the bottom. This will stop the cake from sticking. You can also use our easy pan release for baking instead of greasing with butter if you prefer.
3. Prepare the cover as follows; Take a sheet of parchment and a sheet of aluminium foil large enough to cover the top of the bowl. Place one on top of the other then form a pleat across the centre. Set aside.
For Multi cooker or steamer, place a trivet in the bottom of the cooking container and fill with water up to the level of the trivet. The setting should be for STEAM, for 1 hour 25 minutes. When the time is up, release the steam and remove from the multicooker.
We'd love to hear from you and what you thought of our delicious steamed cherry cake recipe. Did you make any changes or add some other goodies? Let us know in the comments below. Thanks for reading and happy cooking!
1. Prepare your pudding bowl as follows; Place the bowl on a sheet of parchment paper and draw around the base and cut out the circle. My pudding bowl is diameter: 6 Inches or 16 cm at the top and 4 inches or 10cm in height. You need to make sure your bowl will fit in your multi cooker. This size is a perfect fit for mine.
For Multi cooker or steamer, place a trivet in the bottom of the cooking container and fill with water up to the level of the trivet. The setting should be for STEAM, for 1 hour 20 minutes. When the time is up, release the steam and remove from the multicooker.
13. Turn the plate and pudding bowl upside down and remove the bowl. You may have to wait a minute or so for gravity to work. The cake should drop easily. If it doesn't, just run a knife around the edge of the bowl to loosen the cake then try turning it upside down again and the cake should drop.
Creamy Slow Cooker Banana Rice Pudding.
Slow cooker banana rice pudding, a rich and creamy dessert or breakfast, loaded with bananas, a hint of vanilla, and a pinch of cinnamon. Delicious served warm or chilled.
Cherry and Orange Steamed Cake or pudding is a lovely soft and fluffy cake steamed on the stovetop, steamer, or multicooker. Bursting with refreshing orange flavor throughout the cake and coated in morello cherry jam.
Blueberry Ripple Bread and Butter Pudding, a super easy dessert, a warm fruit breakfast casserole with blueberries and bread baked in a creamy sweet custard. Absolutely delicious served warm with a blob of ice cream, whipped cream, or both!
Disclaimer: This site contains affiliate links. I may receive a commission for purchases made through these links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. For more information, check Privacy Policy.
A steamed jammy pudding is the loveliest surprise dessert that you can cook for the special people in your lives. Every mouthful brings back nostalgic childhood memories for me, as my Mum often cooked steamed puddings with various toppings; jam, golden syrup and treacle, and probably mainly in Winter, however, change of seasons in either hemisphere is still the perfect time. Cherry Jam is the perfect topping, sweet and yet very slightly tart, but any thick homemade jam would also work.
I was happy with my second attempt at cooking this perfect steamed pudding, yes this is my second try at perfection. The only real problem with the first time was a result of not choosing the most appropriate steamed pudding basin. I often quietly think that when it comes to cooking, many creators of recipes think that the home cook has an endless supply of cake tins, in all shapes and sizes, and various pudding bowls and basins, saucepans and casserole dishes. There, I've said it now. This recipe is originally from a Coles supermarket recipe catalogue, which is generally very good, and I also checked my Mum's old recipe books, just for good measure, and the size of the pudding basin that Coles recommended didn't work well for me the first time. Second time round, hence the photos and recipe here, it all worked out perfectly. When I heard the plop from the upended pudding bowl onto the plate, I knew that I had nailed it this time. Oh, what a feeling!
It seems that steamed pudding basins are hard to come by, and when I enquired everywhere at our largest shopping centre if they stocked any, I was met with fairly blank looks, but the consensus seemed to be that most Kitchenware shops here have them for sale closer to Christmas, in readiness for the Steamed Plum Pudding cooking rush. Luckily, I have two on hand, both of which I have used previously for my Christmas Plum Puddings, a small and a large one. The original Steamed pudding recipe recommended using a 5-cup (1.25 L) pudding basin, which is quite small, my smallest is a 6 cup with a lid so I thought that would be ok. However, the batter rose and touched the lid of the basin, so that it didn't turn out perfectly. Still delicious to eat, but not so photogenic. Mr. HRK was really happy though, as now there was the promise of two puddings. So, the second time I used my 8 cup Stainless steel basin, which I bought three years ago from a privately owned hardware business here in Mackay called Porters, with a smaller base and with outward sloping sides to the rim, which gives the perfect shape to a large plum pudding and worked well for this one as well. This recipe only filled the basin to nearly 3/4 full, when cooked. But it still turned out beautifully, the basin was well greased with butter. I would suggest shopping for a pudding basin online, much easier. My smaller tin was my Mums, of course, so it's a vintage edition. She always made two plum puddings from her mixture, a large one for Christmas, and the smaller one in this smaller tin for New Year's Day, which is what I do now too. That's a Scottish tradition, or so I was told by her. Yikes, it won't be long, and I'll be making the Christmas plum puddings for 2023.
I've given you some instructions below (Covering the pudding batter for a smaller basin) for using baking paper and alfoil, which I think is safer than using a lid as the paper and alfoil will expand through the crease if the batter rises above the edge of the bowl. However my preference is just to use a larger basin with a lid.
Place an upturned saucer or a trivet in the base of a large saucepan. As long as the pudding basin isn't touching the base of your large saucepan. Position the pudding basin on the saucer in the pan. Add enough boiling water to the pan to come halfway up the side of the basin. Bring water back to a simmer over a medium-high heat.
Serve with cream, ice-cream, or home-made Boiled Egg Custard. It is traditional at Christmas time for us to serve Boiled Egg Custard with the Christmas plum pudd. However, it can be served at any time with any dessert which is complimented by a custard. This is great comfort food, and much nicer than the bought custard.
Bring 2 cups of milk to the boil and add the following and stir in:
1 beaten egg
1 dessertspoon sugar
vanilla
In a medium sized pyrex heatproof bowl, mix 1 dessertspoon corn flour with about 1-2 tblsp. milk to form a liquid paste. Pour boiled milk onto this mixture. Return to the saucepan to thicken and then pour into a nice jug.