I put a spin on a traditional English dessert and made a delicious Lemon Ginger Steamed Pudding topped with whipped cream.

Ingredients //

For the sponge:

1 1/2 sticks butter softened
1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup plus 2 Tablespoons sugar
3 eggs
zest of one lemon and juice of half
3 Tablespoons milk

For the syrup:

1 jar ginger jam
juice from other half of lemon

Instructions //

Step 1 :

Really, this could not be any easier. Put everything in the food processor and give it a whirl until it is smooth. Set aside.

Step 2:

Put the ginger jam in a saucepan and cook it over medium heat until it melts. Take off the heat squeeze the lemon juice in and set aside.

Step 3:

Get a large pot. Put a tea towel in the bottom. Find a bowl that will fit inside the pot with enough room to fill with water. Boil some water, or start the tea kettle.

Step 4:

Generously butter the bowl.

Step 5:

Put the bowl inside the pot. Pour the syrup into the bowl.

Step 6:

Pour the cake batter on top pf the syrup and spread it out to cover the syrup.

Step 7:

Cover the cake with tin foil.

Step 8:

Pour the boiled water into the pot until it reached 3/4 up the sides of the bowl. Cook over medium heat for 2 hours. Check during the cooking time to make sure that you have enough water. You may need to add more. I had to top it off about halfway through.

Step 9:

Carefully get the bowl out of the pot, it is going to be very hot. Now I understand why people tie string around the bowl to help get it out when it is finished. Turn the bowl onto a plate and it should come right out. The jam makes this gorgeous, glistening sauce that makes an already moist cake amazing.

Step 10:

Serve warm with some whipped cream. Delicious.

I will definitely make this again, I can imagine a spicy version on a cold winter night in front of the fire.

Why I made the Lemon Ginger Steamed Pudding //

This month’s Daring Bakers Challenge was to make a traditional English steamed pudding. When I originally read the challenge I almost passed on this month. The original recipe called for suet. What even is suet? Turns out that it not something that I am interested in eating. I did not have the “correct” vesicle to cook the pudding in, so I needed to come up with another plan.

The host was nice enough to let people make any kind of steamed pudding if they were not interested in eating suet or if you had a difficult time finding it. I am no vegetarian, but I really do not like to eat animal fat. With these things worked out I went to the best resource that I could find for a traditional British dessert, Nigella Lawson. (Coincidentally, I will be sharing another Nigella recipe soon.) I found what I wanted to make in How to be a Domestic Goddess.

The original recipe is called Steamed Syrup Sponge. It calls for a lot of corn syrup and I really don’t want to use it unless corn syrup is really necessary in a recipe. In the variation notes there is an orange marmalade version. And while I happen to have some lovely, homemade orange marmalade in my fridge, I opted for another British favorite of mine. Ginger jam. It is my favorite thing to put on toast or a biscuit. It can be hard to find, so when I see it somewhere I pick up a few of them.

All in all, this dessert was really easy to make. Yes, it takes awhile to cook, but it takes minutes to mix together and the cake just steams happily while you do something else. It is a warm, cozy dessert that would be perfect for a chilly night. The ginger jam makes the cake moist and mildly spicy. It would be delicious with whipped cream, ice cream, or poured cream.

**edited at the bottom with ginger jam sources and recipes**

Here is a terrible iphone picture of the jam that I use and love. It is Mackay’s Spiced Ginger Preserve. I happened to find this one at a Whole Foods in Cleveland. My local one does not carry it but will order it for me. British specialty shops will most likely carry it.

Here is a different brand from Amazon.

Here are some links to recipes to make your own. You know that I will be soon.

Ginger Jam from CDKitchens

Swallow Hill Farms Ginger Jam

eHow Ginger Jam (Sweet and Savory)

The April 2010 Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Esther of The Lilac Kitchen. She challenged everyone to make a traditional British pudding using, if possible, a very traditional British ingredient: suet.