Raspberry Sponge Puddings

Step 1

First, preheat your oven to 180C/160C fan/Gas 4. Use your baking margarine to grease some wee ovenproof dishes – ramekins for single servings or anything you can find for bigger ones. This recipe scales perfectly.

Step 2

Weigh your eggs, shells and all. Write down the weight.

Step 3

Weigh out your flour, sugar and margarine in turn into a large bowl  – you want each to be the same weight as your total weight of eggs. Finally, crack in your eggs and add a splash of milk.

Step 4

Whisk everything together for about 20-30 seconds. You want everything to be combined and for the colour to be slightly lighter than it was when you started. Overmix, however, and you’ll have a doughy cake.

Step 5

Scatter your raspberries onto your greased dishes. If you like, you can spoon in some jam for some extra stickiness. Pour over your cake mix, dividing it between them.

Step 6

Bake for 15-25 minutes, depending on the size of your dishes. Check after 15 minutes, regardless. You know they’re done when they spring back when pressed (don’t worry, it’s won’t feel too hot). There’s no need to check with skewers or anything like that, as long as it springs.

Serve hot, turned out with, at least, cream.

Top Tips:

• To make this dessert in a hurry, use your microwave. A microwaveable bowl lined with cling film should be used. Plump your raspberries in the bottom and fill your cake mix on top.  For every egg you use, cook on high power for 3.5 minutes or until set.
• You want to add just a little milk to slacken the mixture before baking. This gives it that ALMOST stodginess that James associate positively with any pudding. It works great with Graham’s cream, ice cream or (by far superiorly) both.

Enjoy!