Naartjie malva pudding

Preheat the oven to 180˚C. Cream together the 125g butter, the egg and 130g sugar in a mixing bowl. Add the vinegar or lemon juice, apricot jam and bicarbonate of soda and mix to combine. Add the 80g cake flour, 250ml (1 cup) milk, citrus rind and salt and mix to combine. Pour into a prepared 20cm-square baking tin and bake in the oven, 25 – 30 minutes.

For the custard, heat the 500ml (2 cups) milk in a pot to almost boiling point – make sure it doesn’t boil. Just as you take it off the heat, add the naartjie rind, if desired. Set aside.

Meanwhile, in a bowl, beat the egg yolks with the castor sugar and 5ml (1 tsp) cake flour until pale and smooth. Pour the milk over the egg mixture, very slowly at first, whisking well to incorporate. Return the mixture to the milk pan and reheat it very gently, stirring all the time (a wooden spoon or spatula is best). As soon as the mixture begins to coat the back of the spoon, rather than just looking like hot milk, the custard is ready. It should be the consistency of cream, so not very thick.

For the syrup, heat all of the ingredients in a small pot over low heat, 10 minutes.

Remove the pudding from the oven and slowly pour over the syrup. Serve warm with the custard.