Gooey School Treacle Sponge

I spent too long messing around on this blog yesterday and by the time that Rachel left at 6.30, I hadn't even started on my dinner party meal.  I'm a fast cook but a messy one, so the kitchen was a bomb site from earlier.  I had to think of a quick and easy dessert, so opted to make gooey school treacle sponge.  I started a t 6.40, my kitchen scales were missing in the mess of the kitchen, so even with minutes of looking for them the pudding was ready for cooking just before 6.50.  I eventually found them under my copy of "Nigellas, How to be a Domestic Goddess."  I bashed the escalopes with my rolling pin, got them all prepared and ready to fry and put the potatoes on to boil at 7ish.  Our guests arrived not long after, where I was able to go and sit down and have a relaxed glass of wine before starting the cooking.  Usually at a dinner party I'll try and do something that's in the oven when the guests arrive, so the actual standing over the stove time is minimal.  That's not always the case though.  We sat down to eat around 7.40 which wasn't bad given the chaos I was in earlier.  I put the pudding in the oven as we sat down.

Gooey School Treacle Sponge
serves 6
from Olive Magazine


Ingredients
6 big tbspn golden syrup
100g butter, plus extra for the dish
100g sugar
2 eggs
half tsp of vanilla essence
100g self-raising flour


 Method
1. Butter a 1 litre baking dish and dollop the syrup in the bottom.  Put the soft butter in a food processor(assuming you have one) with the sugar and blitz until pale.  Beat in the eggs one at a time then the vanilla.  Add the flour and pulse until just mixed.  Scrape into the dish, on top of the syrup.
2. Bake in the oven at 180c/fan for 30 mins until risen and golden.


Mine took a wee bit longer it was a bit squidgy in the middle when I first looked so I stuck it back in for 5 more minutes.  I served with creme fraiche, but custard, cream or yoghurt would be equally as good.


You could always prepare this in advance, just stick in the fridge and take out the warm to room temp before cooking.  It says in the recipe 20 mins to prepare, I think much less.