Delia's Treacle Sponge

I love treacle sponge, and since I just received some pudding basins for my birthday, I decided to give it a go :)

Recipe here: http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/type-of-dish/sweet/steamed-treacle-sponge-pudding.html 

The prepared basin (with plenty of golden syrup!)

The mix

I don't have a steamer, so I used my big cast iron pot, scrunched up some tin foil so that the basin wouldn't touch the bottom of the pan

When cooking the boiling water came half way up the side of the pudding basin.

All tied up.  I watched a video on YouTube on how to do this before I did it!

The finished product.  Despite my excessive greasing, the top still stuck a bit.

Yummy! With ice cream. The best way!

Not a soggy bottom... Argh!

So on Thursday I made a treacle tart for the dinner party we were going to on Friday. I've made one before but it had a soggy bottom, so I was determined not to have the same problem again.

I made sure I rolled the pastry nice and thin, added enough breadcrumbs to the golden syrup so the mixture wasn't too wet, and when I put it in the oven, I put it on a super hot baking tray.

But alas, another soggy bottom! A bakers worst nightmare!

But despite all this it tasted lovely so not all was lost. And the lattice work on top was pretty good, if I may say so myself (top tip- put the lattice pastry in the freezer rolled out for 10 mins before assembling. It means you can manipulate the pastry without it stretching and becoming mis-shapened.)

(Recipe taken from the great British bake off show stoppers recipe book and also in Mary Berry's baking bible)

P.s. forgot to take a photo before it got devoured so only have a pre-bake shot.

At said dinner party we received a pasta machine as a wedding present from some lovely friends - so exciting. So whilst not technically baking, hopefully I will be trying my hand at homemade pasta sometime soon. Watch this space...