Winter Lusciousness

I love winter for the food...pure and simple. Winter is the pudding and casserole season, while Summer is for salads and steaks and fresh fruity deserts...

So here's another pudding to beat away the Winter chills. This time a delicious, dark, self saucing chocolate pudding that is full of flavour, but not too sickly sweet.

Again, I played around with an old recipe adding bits and pieces here and there.

OK, Preheat oven to about 180 degrees and grease a casserole dish.

Into a bowl place 1 cup of self raising flour

1/2 cup castor sugar

2 tablespoons cocoa powder.

Swirl them around until the three are combined.

Place 50 grams of butter into a heat proof bowl or jug and melt in the microwave for about 20 seconds until it's very soft, then add

1/2 cup of milk and

1 egg and mix together, then pour it into the dry ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon or spatula until combined.

At this stage I added a handful of chopped dark chocolate and a half a cup of Morello cherries I had in the cupboard. Fold together and pour mixture into the greased casserole dish

To make the sauce:

Mix together 3/4 cup brown sugar and

2 tablespoons cocoa powder, sprinkle it over the cake mixture, then gently pour 1 1/2 cups boiling water over the top

It will look kind of messy at this stage, but it will be OK. Trust me.

Place into the oven and bake for about 40 minutes.

When you take it out of the oven, let it cool for a couple of minutes before serving with cream or ice-cream. Or both!

I guarantee, this will be devoured!

It must have been good because this is all that's left of it after last night's dinner.

ENJOY!