In brief
- Malva pudding is a South African sponge cake with apricot jam, topped with a warm butter and milk sauce.
- Origin: South Africa, a legacy of Cape Dutch cuisine.
- Key ingredients: flour, sugar, eggs, apricot jam, butter, white vinegar.
- A dessert served warm, with family or for special occasions, with cream or ice cream.
Origins and cultural history of malva pudding
Malva pudding is a South African dessert inherited from Cape Dutch cuisine: from the middle of the seventeenth century, Dutch settlers brought to the Cape recipes for cake puddings linked to the expeditions of the Dutch East India Company. The dessert became firmly established in Afrikaans cuisine, alongside koeksister and melktert, and remains today associated with South Africa more than with the Netherlands.
The origin of the name malva remains debated. According to the Oxford dictionary, it may come from the Afrikaans term malvalekker, a confectionery close to marshmallow. Others link it to the sweet malvasia wine, once used in the sauce or served with the cake, or to the scented pelargonium, a plant native to South Africa sometimes called malva, whose leaves are thought to have flavoured the earliest versions. Long a family dessert, it gained wider visibility in the 1980s, when restaurants such as Boschendal, near Cape Town, added it to their menus.
What are the key ingredients of malva pudding
Malva pudding batter combines simple baking ingredients, bound by apricot jam and a little vinegar, which give the cake its caramelised texture once baked.
- flour
- sugar
- eggs
- apricot jam
- butter
- white vinegar
- milk
What to know about malva pudding
Malva pudding is a South African sponge cake made with apricot jam and a little white vinegar, which gives it a caramelized texture once baked. A hot sauce of butter, milk and sugar is poured over the freshly baked cake, pricked with a fork, and the cake absorbs most of it, turning moist and melt-in-the-mouth. The dessert is served hot, for family meals or special occasions, with cream or ice cream.
Frequently asked questions about malva pudding
Why is the hot sauce poured over the malva pudding straight out of the oven?
The sauce, made of butter, milk and sugar melted together, is poured hot over the cake, which has been pricked with a fork and is itself still warm. The pudding absorbs most of it, which gives it its moist, melting texture.
How long does malva pudding keep?
Once cooled, malva pudding keeps for 3 to 4 days in the refrigerator in an airtight container, because of the sauce that soaks into it. It is gently reheated in the oven or microwave before serving.
Where to find the ingredients for malva pudding in France?
NKOSI sells the white vinegar, cane sugar, milk powder and unsweetened condensed milk needed for this recipe and ships them from the Paris area within 24 to 72 working hours, to mainland France (2 to 3 working days) and to ten European countries. The minimum order is 39 €: in France, delivery to a pickup point is then free, and home delivery is free from 69 €.
