Hands up, who loves #Christmas Steamed Puddings, Custard and Cakes?
I see LOTS of hands up in Internet Land!

Courtesy of Pursuit Communications and Ian (Herbie) Hemphill of Herbies Spices, his Mixed Spice (which was last month’s Spice of the Month #HerbiesSOTM) made its way to my kitchen to try and create a Steamed Pudding or Cake! With this “gracious offer extended,” was provided with two exclusive recipes: (reproduced with permission)

Rich Spiced Christmas Cake which is “Herbie’s favourite cake recipe, given verbatim from the original publication: Cooking with Herbs and Spices by his mother, Rosemary Hemphill.”

Christmas Pudding which is “another of Herbie’s favourites taken verbatim from Entertaining with Margaret Fulton“; Herbie has known Margaret Fulton since he was 12.
I was asked to “be as creative as can be!”

For those who may not be familiar with Margaret Fulton (perhaps maybe one or two people on the planet! lol), Ms. Fulton is the “gurus of all cooking gurus” ; The Margaret Fulton Cookbook was published in 1968; a revised edition was sold in 2010 and has sold 1.5 million copies!

My name is Joanne aka Joanna aka mickeydownunder aka FANG and I have some confessions today!

I had never made a steamed pudding or custard from scratch to date and to “think” I could even attempt to make Herbie’s mother’s recipe or Ms. Fulton’s recipe, sent my heart in a #Christmas twitter-patter!

PLEASE…do not mention to Ms. Fulton, I have never made one of her recipes to date , but in 2014, is “on my list to do!”

I will also confess I KNOW I could have followed either recipe “easily”, but chose to instead create a steamed pudding and custard and seeing #Christmas is all about “food, family and friends”, I decided to “stir” (Aussie lingo for “taking the mickey”; a true expression too) Queen Lou (#Campeblltown Moonlight Markets 1 and 2 fame lol) as I “knew” she would be up for the challenge too!

With this “be as creative as can be” inside my head, I created my very first and original Joanna’s Christmas Pudding Recipe!

Joanna’s Christmas Pudding

 

Print

Prep time

30 mins

Cook time

4 hours

Total time

4 hours 30 mins

 

Easy Christmas Steamed Pudding that I hope will inspire your creativity!

Author: Joanne T Ferguson

Recipe type: Dessert

Cuisine: Australiana

Serves: 16

Ingredients

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup self rising flour
• 1 cup panko
• 1½ teaspoons Herbie’s Mixed Spice
• 850 grams dried fruit
• 4 eggs
• ½ tablespoons jam
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• â…“ cup boiling water
• additional water as needed

Instructions

1. In a bowl, rub butter into brown sugar.
2. In a separate bowl, combine all dry ingredients.
3. In a third bowl, combine eggs and jam; add to jam dry ingredients.
4. In a saucepan, boil â…“ cup water; add to baking soda; add this to mixture until very well combined.
5. NOTE: makes 2 steamed puddings
6. Pack mixture in steamed pudding steamer.
7. Place steam pudding steamer inside stock pot.
8. Pour remaining boiling water down sides of steamer to cover ¾’s of the steamer.
9. Cover with aluminum foil.
10. Place into pre-heated oven at 160C.
11. Boil for 4 hours, topping up water as need.
12. Steamed Pudding is done when skewer comes out clean.
13. Remove from oven and allow to stand for 15 minutes; tip out and serve with homemade custard.

WordPress Recipe Plugin by EasyRecipe

3.2.1271

I love learning all things new when it comes to food!

In addition to this being my first Steamed Pudding and Custard, it is the first time using EasyRecipe to create this recipe!; EASY!

What this recipe DOESN’T mention is I surprised Queen Lou with my Steamed Pudding and homemade “easy-peasy” Vanilla Thermomix Custard (adapted from Sarah’s Vanilla Custard on Thermomazing), and then shared I had used her mother’s Feijoa’s jam which Queen Lou was so lovely to share with me last week!

Three+ things things you also might not know:
1. Feijoa’s (the fruit from the tree that makes FANTASTIC jam! ) comes from Brazil’s highlands evergreen plants.

2. I used a antioxidant combination mix for the fried fruit which consisted of Incaberries, Goji Berries, Blackberries and Cranberries; ground to desired consistency with Thermalina, my new-ish Thermomix!

I used Herbie’s Vanilla Bean Powder; using 3 eggs for that “eggy custard” taste!

3. Queen Lou’s mother passed away this year so was very special to me using her mum’s jam in my very first steamed pudding that I in turn shared with her and her family!

                                   Photo Courtesy of Informed Farmers

Do I “hear” you all going awwww now?

Back to “stirring” Queen Lou DAILY (lol) to create her own #Christmas Pudding and Custard using #HerbiesSOTM Mixed Spice (which smells AMAZING!)….see how distracted I get when it come to all things food!

The “stirring” ( playful teasing) was all in good fun, but enjoyed “nudging her a tad” to get one done!

Here is Queen Lou’s #Christmas Steamed Pudding and Custard:

Here were all the WONDERFUL submissions to Herbie’s #Christmas Pudding and Cake Competition; GREAT submissions indeed!

“Who won the Herbie’s #Christmas Pudding and Cake Competition?, I “hear” you say?

I can now shared (more like YELL with E-X-C-I-T-E-M-E-N-T lol)…..
“QUEEN LOU WON!!!!!” WHOO HOO!

Queen Lou shared her photos with me, but what else got revealed came as a surprise to Herbie’s, the participants, including me!

While #Christmas Is All About Steamed Puddings, Custard and Cakes, Queen Lou shared initially she used:

“the Christmas Pudding recipe from Cookery in Colour published by Golden Press in 1983, I replaced the 1/2 tsp nutmeg with 1 tsp Herbies Mixed Spice which has a fabulous special blend of coriander seed, cassia, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, ginger and cloves.

I didn’t steam the pudding with the silver three pences (the oldest one from 1942) and just placed them for decoration while serving with the hot custard. Christmas has come early at my place!

With a #Christmas joyful friendship tear in my eye, why was this win for Queen Lou so special?

Per Louise’s comments on Herbie’s Facebook wall (also used with her permission):

“Thank you so much Herbies. It means more than you would know. I’ve attached a picture of my bowl my mum used to make Christmas Puddings/Cakes and my Wedding Cake. She passed away this year. I’ve got a little bit of spice back in my life. Merry Christmas!”

Have you ever made a Steamed Pudding and Custard from scratch?

Would you feel “a tad unnerved” about making someone’s mother’s recipe or an exclusively shared celebrity recipe?

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I would LOVED to be pinned via Pinterest too!

NOTE:
The Pinterest Pin Button has now been updated on my photos which was not previously supported by WordPress.com!

Thank you Herbie’s for this fun-filled challenge and adventure with my good friend Queen Lou!

#Christmas Is All About Steamed Puddings, Custard and Cakes…wouldn’t you agree….wouldn’t you?

Please say I am not the only one that sees the Twinkle in this photo?

There really IS a Twinkle!

Just a little bit of #Christmas magic and fun shared by mickeydownunder!

Read the original on: What's On The List?