Pudding Cakes

Puddings must have been a very popular dessert in Austria, Bohemia and Hungary during the early nineteenth century as my grandmother's recipe notebook includes several recipes, called alternatively “koch”, “shaum” or ”pudding”. They can be chocolate or rum flavored, made of rice, almonds or hazelnuts, and they all have a lot of eggs - 6 to 8 eggs. They were very popular during the Christmas season, and they still are today.

What gives the cake the consistency of a pudding is the method of steam baking: A well-greased baking dish with the mixture is placed in a pan of boiling water in the oven and steamed in medium heat for a long time – 45 minutes to an hour. The best baking dish for puddings is a tube pan that allows the steam to reach the center, to have an evenly baked result.

Usually, puddings are served with chaudeau or fruit sauce. Chaudeau (chaude eau - French for warm water), is a sweet wine foam, which originally only consists of egg yolk, sugar and white wine, boiled in a water bath or steamed in a bain-marie. Choosing the right wine is essential in the preparation, sparkling wine or champagne is particularly fine. A dash of cognac or sherry can also be nice. Alternatively, the Chaudeau can be prepared with red or rosé wine.

Red wine Chaudeau from recipe notebook page 13: 40ml red wine, 8 egg yolks, 160g sugar.

For fruit sauce, I like to prepare strawberry and rhubarb sauce:

4 cups diced strawberries

4 cups diced rhubarb

1 lemon juice

3 tbs sugar

3 tbs water

Combine the strawberries, rhubarb, lemon juice, sugar and water in a medium-sized saucepan.

Bring it to a boil and let it cook on low to medium heat for about 30-45 minutes, cook less or longer depending on how thick you want it.