Steamed Amerena and Marsala Pudding

You will need:

A good quality jam, I used amerena cherry.

150 g sugar

150 g butter/margarine

200g flour

2 eggs

2 teaspoons baking powder

Cream the sugar and butter together.

Add a few tablespoons of jam.

Add the eggs.

Add the flour and baking powder.

In a saucepan add about 4 heaped tablespoons of jam. Heat gently until it becomes almost liquid. Next add Marsala wine to taste.

Coat the inside of a heat-proof dish with some of the jam mixture. 

Now add the cake batter. Pour the remaining jam mixture on top of the cake batter. 

Cover with grease-proof paper and then foil.

Place the bowl inside a colander inside a saucepan of water that reaches about 3/4 to the side of the bowl. Cover the bowl with a saucepan lid.

Leave the water to boil checking periodically that there is still water in the saucepan.

The cake will take about 2 hours to cook but it will be lovely and moist. Check it every now and again.

Cream the sugar and butter

Stir in jam

Add the eggs

Add the flour

Adding Marsala

Add Marsala to the jam

The jam becomes almost like liquid

Coat the bowl

Put the mixture in the bowl

Cover with grease-proof paper

Steam the pudding

Tiramisu'

You will need:

500 ml mascarpone 

500 ml cream

150 g sugar

2 egg yolks

Cup of cold strong black coffee 

Sponge fingers

Bitter dark chocolate powder

Marsala (optional)

My family likes me to make the tiramisu' quite creamy so I have adapted the recipe to suit them. Also I don't like the idea of eating raw eggs so again I adapted the classic recipe.

Pour the cream into a heat-proof bowl. Add the egg yolks and sugar. Stir well. Place over a saucepan and allow to heat up but not boil. I added a spoonful of Marsala wine at this point but I don't always do this. A friend happened to gift me a bottle.

Whisk the cream mixture which should have thickened a bit. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

Once the cream mixture has cooled add the mascarpone and lightly whisk. Now you can start layering. 

Place a layer of sponge fingers in a dish. You can either make one big tiramisu' or make it in individual bowls. I usually have more success if I sprinkle the coffee on the sponge fingers than when I dip them in coffee. You don't want the fingers to become soggy.

Add some of the cream mixture. Sieve cocoa powder on top of this. Start the procedure again. Continue, ending with a layer of the cream mixture covered in the cocoa powder. 

Place in the fridge for a few hours to set.

Mix the cream, eggs and sugar

Add the Marsala

Add the mascarpone

Layer the fingers

Cold coffee

Add a layer of mixture

Sprinkle on cocoa powder

You've reached the top. Now refrigerate!

Enjoy a slice

Cin Cin, Prospect, St James, Barbados

My good friend Sherry and I went to Cin Cin for lunch today. Apart from the great food and service the setting was absolutely beautiful overlooking the Caribbean Sea. I can imagine it being quite a romantic restaurant at night but it was nice to see a Mum treating her little boy to a birthday lunch.

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