Microwave Sponge Pudding with Proper Custard

Microwave Sponge Pudding is just the thing when you want a sweet dessert and fast. After whipping up the batter, your pudding will take just 3 minutes to cook in the microwave. The result is a light and fluffy sponge, just ready to have some old fashioned, homemade custard poured over it.

And if you’ve never made real custard before, you might be surprised at just how easy it is.

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MICROWAVE SPONGE PUDDING

An old fashioned pudding, boiled for hours, can be a lovely thing. In particular I have very fond memories of the plain suet pudding my mum used to make. We’d eat it with either jam or golden syrup over the top.

But these days I prefer something a little lighter and a lot quicker too. This Microwave Sponge Pudding fits that bill perfectly. It’s beautifully fluffy, but takes only 3 minutes in the microwave.

All you do is beat together sugar and melted butter before adding an egg, self raising flour, a little milk and you’re ready to go.

But I think it’s even better with a blob of jam or lemon curd at the bottom of the cooking pot. Once the sponge’s ready, you turn it out onto a plate and your pudding will have a lovely sweet, sticky topping.

Above is one with Homemade Strawberry Jam, although I probably added a little too much there! The one in most of the images here has Homemade Orange Curd. For the latter I added a little orange zest and juice to the sponge as well.

By the way, if you want to put the sponge pudding together in advance, I’ve found that the uncooked pud will sit quite happily in the fridge for a couple of hours. Just cover it in cling film, and it’ll be ready to microwave when you want to eat.

PROPER CUSTARD

In my book, you can’t have sponge pudding without custard. But you don’t need to open a tin, packet or plastic tub to get custard in a flash.

I’m always amazed at the popularity of those red, yellow and blue-striped tins of custard powder which claim to have the ‘homemade’ taste. There’s no magic ingredient in them – just flavoured and coloured cornflour!

I think perhaps part of its appeal is that we’ve been brainwashed into thinking that making a custard with eggs is difficult. Surely they’re bound to curdle or scramble?

But take a tip from Mr Bird (who invented the egg-less custard for his allergic wife) and add just a little cornflour. This will mean your custard has next to no chance of curdling and there’s no need to mess about with double saucepans.

SUPERFAST PUDDING

Once you’ve whipped up your sponge, the cooking of it and the custard is going to happen pretty fast. If I’ve mixed up the pudding in advance, I’ll take it out of the fridge and leave it in the microwave while I get the custard ingredients together.

While you’re milk’s heating up, you whisk together sugar, an egg yolk, cornflour and vanilla extract. Once all of these are combined, you stir over a lowish heat until the custard thickens. This will take around 3-5 minutes.

For a thinnish custard like in the photos, use 2 level teaspoons of cornflour. For a medium custard, use 2 heaped and for a thick one, 3 rounded teaspoons of cornflour.

Ping your Microwave Sponge Pudding just before the custard’s done and that’s it.

Get your spoon and dig in!

4.2 from 5 votes

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Microwave Sponge Pudding with Proper Custard

You'll be amazed at how good this light and fluffy sponge pudding is as it takes just 3 minutes in a microwave. Add your own flavourings like jam or lemon curd & pour over easy homemade custard.

Course Dessert

Cuisine British

Keyword pudding, sponge pudding, quick

Prep Time 12 minutes

Cook Time 8 minutes

Total Time 20 minutes

Servings 2 very generously

Author Moorlands Eater

Ingredients

For the sponge pudding

• 65 g caster sugar
• 65 g butter melted (plus extra for greasing)
• 1 egg
• 75 g self raising flour sifted
• 1-2 tbsp milk

Optional flavourings for the sponge

• 2-3 tbsp jam, lemon or orange curd, golden syrup
• 1 small orange or lemon zest and juice

For the custard

• 200 ml milk
• 1 egg yolk
• 30 g sugar
• 2-3 tsp cornflour 2 level tsp for thinner custard, 2 rounded ones for medium, 3 heaped for thick
• 1 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla paste

Instructions

Sponge Pudding

1. Butter a microwave safe bowl which has a 550-600ml capacity.

   If you're going to add jam, curd or golden syrup, spoon it into the bottom of the bowl.

2. Beat together the sugar and melted butter (use electric beaters if possible).

3. Add the egg and half of the sifted flour. Beat again to combine.

4. Add the rest of the flour and beat again.

5. If using citrus zest and juice, beat them in now.

6. Beat in enough of the milk so that the mixture has a soft, dropping consistency when you lift the beaters.

7. Spoon the mixture into the bowl and cover the bowl with cling film.

   Can be refrigerated for a few hours at this point if needed.

8. Prick the cling film a few times with a fork then put the bowl in the microwave. Cook on full power for 3 minutes.

   Pudding should be set, risen, springy on top and pulling away from the sides of the bowl. If not, cook for just a few seconds more then check again. Repeat until done (important: don't overcook or sponge could collapse and lose its light, fluffy texture).

9. Leave the pudding to rest for 2-3 minutes before turning out onto a dish or plate and serving with the custard poured over.

Custard

1. Put the milk in a saucepan and heat gently. Remove from the heat just before it boils.

2. Meanwhile, whisk together the egg yolk, sugar, cornflour and vanilla extract or paste in a bowl.

3. Pour the hot milk into the bowl, whisking constantly to combine.

4. You can start the cooking of the sponge pudding in the microwave at this point too

   Transfer the mixture back into the saucepan and heat gently until the custard thickens (approx 3-5 minutes).

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