Cottage Pudding with Maple Sauce

Ingredients

Cake

• 1 egg
• 1 cup of milk, room temperature
• 2 cups of flour
• 4 tablespoons of butter (2 ounces) softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons of cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1 teaspoon maple (or vanilla) flavouring (to taste)

Sauce

• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons four
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 cups milk

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°F

Cake

1. Cream butter and sugar, add egg.
2. Sift together flour, cream of tartar, and baking soda.
3. Alternately add dry ingredients and milk slowly to egg mixture to combine.
4. Pour batter in a greased 8x8 pan.
5. Bake for 25–30 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Sauce

1. Over medium heat, melt butter in a sauce pan over low heat,
2. Stir in flour and sugar and gradually add milk to prevent lumps.
3. Sir constantly until it thickens.
4. Flavour with vanilla or maple flavouring (to taste)
5. Keep warm until ready to serve.

Serving

1. Cut cake into squares and place each serving on a small plate or in a small bowl.
2. Pour warm sauce over each square and serve.

Comments

Note from Grandma to her daughter Barbara on the recipe card: “Barbara you can do as I do, mix flour salt sugar in pan, add milk stirring so it won’t become lumpy, then toss in butter.”

No recipes for the actual Cottage Pudding (ie. the cake) could be found in our family collection. Pudding is the term used by the British to mean dessert.

Historical Record

In her blog, Revolutionary Pie freelance writer and editor Karen Hammonds writes:

Cottage pudding originated in North America. The earliest recipe I could find was published in 1863 or 1864 in Godey’s Lady’s Book, a popular 19th-century women’s magazine. It was reprinted in Civil War Recipes: Receipts from the Pages of Godey’s Lady’s Book, a wonderful collection edited by Lily May Spaulding and John Spaulding.

Robin choose the cake recipe in this entry for its authenticity and simplicity. It was adapted by the Macculloch Hall Historical Museum from a recipe belonging to Louisa Macculloch, a British immigrant who settled with her husband George in what is now New Jersey in 1810.

Original Louisa Macculloch Cottage Pudding Recipe

• 1 egg
• 1 cup of milk
• 1 pint of flour
• 1/8 pound of butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons full of cream tartar in the flour
• 1 teaspoon on soda in the milk

Louisa Macculloch did not have a written recipe for a sauce to pair with the cake.