When I saw a recipe for Malva pudding in the Taste Magazine, I was reminded of the delicious-ness of that dish. It is a perfect, sweet and sticky winter comfort food. But I had no excuse to make a pudding (ja, I know - do you really need an excuse to make pudding?!) and lots of reasons to make cupcakes. So hey presto! the idea for Malva Pudding Cupcakes was born. Well, actually I thought I was being very clever and original, but apparently not - according to Google. However, I did also come up with the idea of Amarula Mascarpone Icing - which hasn't made an appearance on the web, yet. And so I gleefully claim that one as all my own invention! Yes, of course I will share it with you :o) As it turns out, I misplaced that Taste magazine, so instead I used Sarah Graham's recipe for the pudding; woolworths.co.za recipe for the sauce, and the icing - can I say it again?! - is an original (take that, Google!) Malva Pudding Cupcakes recipe from www.you.co.za/sarah-graham-blogs-for-us/ Preheat oven to 180'C Line a 12 hole muffin pan with cupcake cases. Ingredients: 1 cup flour 1tsp baking soda Pinch salt 1tsp vinegar or lemon juice 1tbs melted butter 1tbs smooth apricot jam 1 cup milk 1 egg 1 cup sugar Sift the flour, salt and baking soda together in a bowl. Use an electric mixer to cream together the sugar and egg. Then mix in the jam, butter and lemon juice/ vinegar. Alternate adding the dry ingredients and milk. Begin and end with the dry ingredients. Mix well. Divide batter evenly between cupcake cases. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until their tops are just starting to turn golden. Remove from oven - and immediately pour a little sauce over each cupcake. Sauce: recipe from www.woolworths.co.za 1/3 cup cream 2 tbs butter 2tbs sugar 3tbs water Melt all the sauce ingredients together, then pour over cupcakes when they come out the oven. (Note - this makes much less sauce than what you would use for a whole malva pudding - if you want to make enough sauce for a pudding, then use 1 cup cream 115g butter 100g sugar 1/2 cup hot water). Amarula Mascarpone Icing Recipe by Tea, Cake & Create 250g mascarpone - from fridge 125 ml (1/2 cup) whipping cream - from fridge 1/2 cup icing sugar 30 - 40 ml Amarula (depending on how boozy you want it!) Place all the ingredients into the bowl of a mixer**, beat with the whisk attachment until it reaches piping consistency. **The trick with making any whipped cream icing is to use a chilled bowl and whisk. They should be placed in the freezer for at least 20minutes before using. I'd left mine in for about half an hour - it was so cold when I took it out, that my fingers stuck to it! But the icing whipped up to the right consistency in less than a minute. And it was definitely worth a few chilblains! Pipe icing onto the cupcakes once they are cool. Enjoy! xxM