South African apricot sponge pudding with butter sauce (Malva pudding)

1. Preheat the oven to 180 °C and butter an ovenproof dish of about 20x25 cm.

2. Beat the egg with the sugar for 3-4 minutes until fluffy, then beat in the apricot jam; melt the butter and add it to the milk with the vinegar.

3. Mix the flour with the bicarbonate of soda and salt and fold it into the egg mixture alternately with the milk mixture until you have a smooth batter.

4. Pour the batter into the dish and bake for 35-40 minutes until the top is dark golden brown and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.

5. In the last minutes of baking, bring the sauce ingredients (cream, butter, sugar, water, vanilla extract) to the boil in a small pan, stirring until the sugar dissolves.

6. Prick the hot pudding all over with a fork, pour the hot sauce evenly over it and leave for 10 minutes to soak in; serve warm with custard or ice cream.

Tip: Malva pudding is perhaps South Africa's favourite Sunday dessert, of Dutch Cape origin; sticky, caramelly and very moist. The secret is to pour the hot sauce over the hot pudding straight from the oven so it soaks it all up. It is also delicious with marmalade instead of apricot jam.