Malva Pudding Recipe Without Cream

This extremely rich, very delicious and not too sweet malva pudding with a wonderful creamy texture is absolutely to die for!! Made with very simple ingredients that you always have on hand.

Malva pudding is one of the popular desserts in Namibia. You’ll find it on almost every restaurant/ lodge Menu countrywide. Tastes great served with vanilla custard, vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

This is one of my favorite malva pudding recipes. I got it from Elsie, a down to earth lady, from Vreugde guest farm.

A small farm close to Etosha National Park, Namibia. I’ve also made it yesterday for our women’s day event and it disappeared in no time.

What is Malva pudding

Malva pudding is a cake flavored with apricot jam and vinegar and poured with a hot syrup while still warm. It’s extremely sweet and not for those that count calories.

Since I’m not a fan of very very sweet desserts I’ve reduced the amount of sugar by half. I’ve also used water instead of fresh cream for the syrup to make it somehow calorie friendly. But feel free to replace water with fresh cream or orange juice or both.

What you’ll need to make malva pudding

For the dough

• 50 g (about 2 oz/ 1/4 cup) melted butter
• 90 g (3 oz/ ½ cup) brown sugar
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 120 g (4.2 oz/ 1 cup) plain flour/ all purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon apricot jam
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 250 ml (8 fl oz/ 1 cup) milk, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice/ white wine vinegar

For the sauce/ syrup

• 100 g (3.5 oz) butter
• 80 g (2.8 oz/ 1/3 cup + 2 tablespoons) brown sugar
• 125 ml (4 fl oz/ ½ cup) boiling water

How to make malva pudding

Preheat the oven to 250 °C (482 °F), with both up and bottom heat. Combine plain flour and baking soda and sieve.

In a bowl, beat eggs and sugar together until creamy. Stir in apricot jam and melted butter. Add part of the flour mixture and then milk, until you’ve used up all the flour and milk.

Stir in lemon juice or vinegar and pour the batter in a casserole dish (I’ve used a (20 x 30 cm (7.8 x 12 inch)) casserole dish)

and bake for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes reduce the heat to 190 °C (374 °F) and bake for another 5 minutes. Switch off the oven and let the cake be inside for 5 minutes.

Note: If you’re using a smaller baking dish, just be sure to increase the baking time. Because the smaller the baking dish, the longer the baking time. Also try to use a toothpick or a fork to check the cake for doneness.

In the meantime make the sauce/ syrup. Melt sugar and butter in a pot over medium heat. Keep stirring until all of the sugar has melted. Then stir in the boiling water.

Remove the pudding/ cake from the oven. Poke some holes all over the pudding and pour over the hot sauce evenly.

Put it back in the switched off oven. Let it stay in the oven until all the sauce has been absorbed.

The pudding tastes delicious both warm and cold.

What to serve with malva pudding

Malva pudding tastes great served with vanilla custard, vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

More Recipes From Southern Africa

• Fat cakes
• Spinach stew
• Oshifima
• Oshingali

Did you make this malva pudding without cream? Did you make this recipe? I’d love to hear from you! Simply write a review and add rating to it.