How to Make Cabinet Pudding — The Victorian Way

[Music] ah hello it's nice to see you again today you find me making a cabinet pudding it is a popular pudding made from stale sponge cake and preserved fruits and so is ideal for the hungry months between March and may when for a lot of people there isn't much fresh produce around for this recipe you will need preserved cherries Angelica candid peel and ginger sponge cake [Music] macaroons milk or cream sugar eggs and [Music] Brandy this recipe is very simple what elevates it to a dish suitable for a family lunnon is the decoration so I'm going to to start by working on the preserved Ginger Angelica candid peel and cherries I'm going to slice them and cut them into shapes suitable for my mold cabinet pudding is a custard pudding a bit like bread and butter pudding but more suitable to a middle class or upper class household like all popular pins it has many names Newcastle pudding diplomat's pudding Chancellor's pudding or spongecake pudding but more often than not it is called cabinet pudding this is an ideal recipe for this time of year as it uses ingredients from the pantry such as these preserved fruits made by Mrs wari last year or as in case for the ginger from the grocer I believe this jar came from an Italian wehouse in Cambridge I always prefer to buy West Indies Ginger over Ginger from China I think it's important to always buy British and Jamaican ginger is very good now it's time for me to slice sponge cake to fill my mold you can use any sponge cake a fatless SEO will do well you could use one with buser this cake is ideal as it's stale I made it for the family last week if they'd eaten none of it then I would have reused it to make a Tipsy Cake but as they have eaten some I think it will do nicely you might be tempted to buy a sponge cake but I would advise against this a good cook should be able to make a light sponge cake without thinking about it and so the practice will set you in good stead sponge cake is the basis for many other cakes so it's worth getting it right [Music] Maryanne has made me some custard it's simply eggs milk sugar and I've asked her to add a little of the syrup from the preserved Ginger H very nice making custard sauce is not an easy thing to do if you're not used to it especially if you're making the custard that most English people like which which is very thick some people use custard powder or add a tablespoon to their custard sauce but you should only really do such things if you have permission from your household to make the shortcuts I have known people get sacked for such things I'm now going to add the Brandy and set it aside to [Music] cool now it's time to put the pudding together I'm going to start by lining the mold thickly with butter so the preserved fruits will stick to the edges in a fancy pattern then I will layer in my cake and my [Music] [Music] biscuits it's important for all Cooks to have lots of different uses for all sorts of foods that are slightly past their best even in a wealthy household like this there is no excuse for good foods to be sent out to the pigs when there might still be a use for them especially when it comes to cake and biscuits sugar is cheaper nowadays after the tax cuts 6 years ago but it's not just about the ingredients it's about the time the labor and the fuel with all these bad harvests we've had recently it's our duty not to waste [Music] food now all is left is for me to add the custard allowing it to soak right down to the bottom I like this recipe because you can make it at any time of the year here at Oly end house we don't experience the hunger Gap because Mr vert and his team provide us with fresh fruit and vegetables all the year round I don't think Lord and Lady braybrook would like to eat according to the seasons it would be very tedious and not a good way to show off their wealth however sometimes preserved fruits are more suitable now I'm going to cover this with a piece of brown paper and then a cloth and I'm going to let it Steam for about [Music] hour now that my pudding is done all it leads for me to do is to turn it out [Music] [Music] [Music] it is quite moist so I don't think I'll add a sauce There we are cabinet pudding the perfect way to use a stale cake with preserved fruits [Music]

Channel: English Heritage

Views: 189,172

Keywords: English Heritage, history, The Victorian Way, Mrs. Crocombe, Audley End

Id: RE18V7SkTbE

Length: 10min 9sec (609 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 25 2024