Steamed Pudding in a Microwave: Cherry Suet Pudding

This cherry suet pudding is a real winter warmer.  I’ve probably made and eaten more of these sweet microwave dumplings and sponges than you’ve had hot dinners!  The trouble with a steamed pudding in a microwave is it’s just too darned easy and I love to whip up a cherry suet sponge pudding and get on with the serious business of eating it!. Making a sponge cake in a microwave oven is so easy, I’ve a variety of different flavours and recipes I’ve used over the decades, since I made my first treacle sponge in a holiday caravan over 30 years ago! Microwave steamed sponge puddings can be made fast and with few ingredients, this cherry suet pudding’s a staple in my house.

Now, when I look round the supermarkets, I see the TINY pots for sale at £1 for 1-2 TINY puddings and I think “I can make 10x that amount for 1/3rd of the cost at home!” – and quickly rush home to make one.  Below is a cherry suet pudding I made in the microwave last week:

I’ve noticed a lot of people calling these mug cakes online in recent years, then presenting a photo of something that’s, well, a bit of a mess as a mug’s not large enough for a full-sized portion.

My ‘secret’ isn’t trying to squeeze all that goodness into a mug, but using a 1 pint Pyrex jug to do the cooking instead.

This gives me a VERY generous serves one portion and the steamed pudding’s got space to rise.  If you don’t know how to make dumplings then you’re in for a treat as it’s so easy:

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons Suet dumpling mix – a simple 2:1 ratio of self-raising flour and suet.  Recipe: Suet mix
• Jam – I used black cherry jam this time. Any jam will do, so grab your best jam!
• Custard – I used a packet of instant custard.

Make Sponge Cake in a Microwave Oven:

1. I intended to spoon out one tablespoon of jam into the bottom of the Pyrex jug, but it was so close to the end of the jar I added more jam than I usually do.
2. I added water slowly to the 2 tablespoons of suet dumpling mix (to be honest, 2 tablespoons was a little big piggy, but I felt I deserved a big pudding that day).  The water/mix are then combined slowly, until they combine (no dry bits left).
3. Spoon the suet dumpling onto the jam in the Pyrex jug.
4. Cover the Pyrex jug (this helps the whole steaming part as the steam is retained in the jug.
5. I then microwaved it at full power (800 watt microwave oven) for 3 minutes, while watching it through the window until I thought it looked “good enough to eat”

Serve, I served mine with instant custard.

It’s that simple.  The other benefit of using a Pyrex jug for this is you’ve a nice handle to grip so you can turn the jug upside down and tip the pudding into a bowl.  If you’re against washing up you can eat your pudding from the Pyrex jug, if nobody’s looking.

Want to Make Suet Free Dumplings?

You can also make cherry pudding without suet – yes, one without suet: Dumplings Without Suet

Microwave steamed sponge puddings are the future of comfort eating 🙂