The Lazy Sunday Pudding Experiment

This pudding was most certainly an experiment, but I was so pleased with the outcome (taste-wise at least!) that I had to share it.  I had some sponge cake trimmings left over from making some mini victoria sponges, and never wanting to throw anything away (especially cake!) I'd kept it in a bowl covered in cling film.

We also had a couple of raspberry doughnuts left in the cupboard which had gone stale (rock solid to be precise!) so again my "waste not want not" ethics came into play.  Rather than waffle on I'll write this as a recipe:

You will need:

Sponge cake trimmings (or the ends of a loaf of bread

2 stale jam doughnuts (or you could used pain au chocolat - improvise!)

Handful of fruit (raspberrys, apple, banana, chocolate - that's a fruit right?)

3/4 pint cheap instant custard

1 egg

Method:

• Break the cake trimmings into pieces and cover the base of an oven-proof dish. 
• Slice the doughnuts and lay across the top of the cake.  
• Tuck the raspberries into any gaps between the cake and doughnut pieces.
• Make up the custard according the the packet's instructions, but err on the side of 'runny' in terms of consistency.  Allow to cool slightly.
• Beat the egg in a separate cup, before beating a little of the cooled custard in to the egg.
• Pour the beaten egg into the the rest of the custard - adding a little custard to the egg beforehand helps to stop the egg cooking before stirred in.
• Pour the custard mixture over the cake pieces ensuring all of the cake is covered.  Push the cake pieces down into the custard if necessary.
• Bake at 160*C for an hour.
• Remove and allow to cool slightly before serving. 

This was such a lucky experiment.  Loosely based on Nigella Lawson's Pain Au Chocolate recipe from How to be a Domestic Goddess, but I opted for an incredibly lazy alternative, but loved how it turned out.  We had ours with icecream, but cream or more custard would have been just as good.  Might try it again with apples and syrup... or chocolate chunks and croissants..... or bananas and toffee... or.....