Canary Pudding is a traditional English steamed pudding.
This canary-yellow coloured sweet treat is sure to brighten any dinner menu – it’s both comforting and lively.
Winter is definitely made more bearable by little comforts like open fires, hot chocolate, and… puddings.
I find those packet self-saucing puddings quite tempting, but when I steamed up this Canary Pudding from scratch I was impressed by the difference.
I patted myself on the back and said, “Now THIS is a pudding!“
It’s not quite as easy as a packet pudding, but a homemade steamed pudding is certainly worth the effort and this Canary Pudding recipe is quite easy to follow.
A little history
The original recipe is dated May 1940, however my research shows that canary puddings reached the heights or their popularity in Australia in the earlier 1900’s.
The earliest reference I can find to this recipe in Australian newspapers is during the Victorian era. I wonder if Queen Victoria was one to indulge in a little Canary Pudding?
In earlier times, though, puddings weren’t really considered an indulgence. Puddings were seen in a different, more nutritional, light.
“While meat is so dear, and while vegetables are so scarce and unappetising, do not neglect the puddings. Nothing is more nutritious than a well-made pudding.”
The Mail (Adelaide), 3 April 1915
“The best puddings are those that supply materials for body building as well as satisfying appetite. These are milk puddings, fruit puddings and those containing egg. So use these as often as you can, particularly for children.”
The Armidale Express, 25 August 1947 Getting prepared for pudding making
Do you have all the ingredients?
You should have most of the ingredients on hand. The only thing I didn’t have was the lemon essence, which I found among the other cooking essences at the supermarket. Oh, and the creme fraiche for the sauce was another thing I had to add to the shopping list.
What to do if you don’t have a steamer
This is a steamed pudding, so a saucepan steamer, as pictured below, makes things easy. However, you can also simply use a large saucepan or boiler with a small heatproof container placed in the bottom (on which you sit the pudding, with the water level sitting just below your pudding).
Do you need a pudding bowl?
I made this recipe just when the cold weather hit Sydney. I could not get my hands on a pudding bowl – shopkeepers either looked at me blankly or told me they’d just sold out.
Instead, I used a small pyrex bowl. This worked perfectly well.
(By coincidence, a couple of days later not one but two lovely pudding bowls found their way to me. My dear neighbour, Joyce, sadly passed away a couple of months ago at the the age of 97 years. She was a wonderful neighbour and a superb cook. Whenever I’d do something nice for her, she’d always outdo me. I took some fresh cherries over to her a few years ago and later that day she delivered layered cherry jelly for my kids to enjoy. So, when her daughter asked me if I’d like to look through some of Joyce’s kitchen things, I was keen to take a peak. At the very top of the pile of things to be thrown out were two lovely pudding bowls. Thank you, Joyce!)
Here’s a picture to give you an idea of the (minimal) difference between a pudding bowl and mixing bowl (the mixing bowl is in the middle of my two newly-acquired pudding bowls):
Nana Ling’s Canary Pudding recipe
Keep scrolling for the tested and tweaked version.
Canary Pudding
Ingredients
Pudding
- 60 grams butter
- 60 grams caster sugar
- 1 egg
- 60 ml milk
- 1 lemon (grated rind only)
- 1/4 teaspoon lemon essence
- 115 grams plain flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- pinch salt
Sauce
- 1/3 cup creme fraiche
- 1/3 cup custard
Instructions
Pudding
- Beat butter and sugar to a cream.
- Beat egg and add to mixture.
- Add milk and lemon essence and mix well.
- Add lemon rind, salt and sifted flour and baking powder. Mix well.
- Grease a small pudding bowl or pyrex bowl.
- Cover with greased paper and tie down.
- Steam for one and a half hours.
- Once cooked, use a knife to carefully free the pudding from the edges of the bowl before turning out onto a plate.
Sauce
- Whisk creme fraiche and custard together.
- Pour over pudding and top with a slice of lemon.
Jan
Wednesday 29th of September 2021
Hello Libby, We ate Canary Pudding a lot when things were lean on the farm - always with golden syrup. We each had a wedge with a small spoonful of golden syrup poured on top. Served with hot boiled custard. (Golden syrup tin sat on edge of hob so it would run easily off the spoon). Cheers, Jan
Libby Hakim
Thursday 30th of September 2021
You're making me hungry, Jan! Hot boiled custard is always a winner :) Thanks for adding your memories of this recipe. Libby x