Corrective custard

I'm sure you all remember my sultana cake from a few days ago - that shining example of what happens when you don't pay attention to a recipe. The cake wasn't too bad around the edges, but the further I got into the centre of it, the soggier it got.

I had a certain amount of success with zapping each piece in the microwave before I ate it. This cooked the cake but tended to dry it out a bit. Luckily, the dryness can be combated with a liberal application of custard, turning weird soggy sultana cake into a tasty pudding.

There are several custard recipes in the Edmonds book - I decided to make Edmonds velvet custard (p209). Usually I make custard in the microwave, but this one was on the stovetop. It's very easy - just stir together an egg, some milk, custard powder and sugar until it thickens. That's it.


I quite like using the stovetop instead of the microwave, since you can stir continuously, whereas if you have it in the microwave, you have to keep taking it out to stir. The result is lovely and smooth, as you would expect from a recipe entitled 'velvet custard'.  I cut a chunk of sultana cake into bits and zapped it in the microwave, and my pudding was ready.

I found the custard slightly bland - I'd be tempted to add a larger amount of custard powder next time. On the whole, though, it was pretty tasty - it certainly improved the sultana cake!


The recipe isn't huge, (which is good from my point of view) but I did have some left over, so I took a chunk of cake to work with a little container of custard. I got a few odd looks from the workmates when I heated up a bowl of custard and cake for morning tea, but it was definitely more satisfying than coffee and a biscuit!