{"id":8325,"date":"2026-10-19T15:19:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T06:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/parade.kyoto\/?post_type=sweetlore&p=8325"},"modified":"2026-10-31T18:49:45","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T09:49:45","slug":"malva-pudding","status":"publish","type":"sweetlore","link":"https:\/\/parade.kyoto\/en\/sweetlore\/malva-pudding\/","title":{"rendered":"Malva Pudding"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A warm, sweet sauce is soaked into the baked batter. South Africa\u2019s malva pudding is a soft dessert of baked batter generously soaked with sauce. A well-known method mixes apricot jam into the batter, and it is divided into portions and served warm with cream, custard, ice cream or the like. Here, pudding<\/em> does not mean Japanese purin, which is chilled until set, but a dessert eaten after a meal.<\/p>\n

The milk used in the batter and the sauce<\/h2>\n

Flour, sugar, eggs, butter, milk and other ingredients are used, and the jam is added into the batter rather than on top. Some methods use vinegar and bicarbonate of soda, and the way of mixing is not uniform. In the recipe (ingredient proportions and method) by cook Warren Mendes, eggs, melted and cooled butter, jam, vinegar and evaporated milk are added to flour, bicarbonate of soda and fine white sugar and combined with a whisk. There is no step of creaming the butter with sugar or of whisking the yolks and whites separately.<\/p>\n

One 375-milliliter can of evaporated milk, an unsweetened concentrated milk, is used: 150 milliliters in the batter and 225 milliliters in the sauce. The sauce also uses brown sugar, cream, butter and water, and the milk and fat soaked in after baking are also ingredients that shape the flavor and texture of the whole dessert.<\/p>\n

\n\"Malva\n
Cross-section of malva pudding (August 21, 2009; location unknown). Yellow cake is visible beneath the deeply browned top. Photo: Jon Mountjoy \/ Wikimedia Commons<\/a> \/ CC BY 2.0<\/a>. Reduced-size version obtained from Commons. No content alterations or cropping by us.<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

Baking through to the center, then soaking in warm sauce<\/h2>\n

For the sauce to be absorbed, the pudding must first be baked through to the center. In Maggie Pepler\u2019s recipe, a heatproof glass or ceramic dish is covered with greased aluminum foil and baked. Michael Olivier, who passed on the recipe, explains that if it is underbaked, it will not absorb the sauce and the inside will be heavy.<\/p>\n

A sauce of butter, sugar and other ingredients is kept warm and poured over the hot cake. Making holes in the cake helps the sauce penetrate inside. In South African Tourism\u2019s recipe, a sauce of boiling water, brown sugar, vanilla and concentrated milk is added in several portions over a few minutes, waiting for the sauce already poured to soak in. The sauce does not merely decorate the surface but moistens the cake all the way through.<\/p>\n

Pepler\u2019s sauce uses ordinary milk, cream, sugar, water and butter, while Mendes\u2019s sauce uses evaporated milk. South African Tourism gives a sauce with neither butter nor cream, and the apricot jam in its batter is optional. In this way, the use of jam and dairy products varies from recipe to recipe.<\/p>\n

\n\"Malva\n
Malva pudding cut into portions on a plate (April 20, 2025; location unknown). When baked large and divided, it becomes square pieces. Photo: Valereee \/ Wikimedia Commons<\/a> \/ CC0<\/a>. Reduced-size version obtained from Commons. Provided under CC0 by the photographer. No content alterations or cropping by us.<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

A household recipe that spread through a restaurant in the 1970s<\/h2>\n

Handed down as a warm dessert of the Cape Dutch tradition, malva pudding also became popular in restaurants in the late 1970s. Olivier, who was in charge of the restaurant at Boschendal, recalls that in the late 1970s, while the head chef was away, he asked his friend Pepler for help and learned how to make it from her. After that, it became a fixture on the buffet.<\/p>\n

Pepler said she had learned how to make it from her mother. A 2013 obituary preserves a recollection that farm women read recipes to one another over shared party-line telephones, which is why it was called \u201ctelephone pudding.\u201d A method that had been passed between households was brought into a restaurant and came to be shared with customers who wanted to know how to make it.<\/p>\n

The recipe Olivier published in 2013 was also the one he had received from Pepler. Later, versions adding bananas, apples or caramelized condensed milk also became more common. In addition to the recipe handed down from home kitchens to restaurants, methods using new ingredients have also spread.<\/p>\n

A pudding recorded in early 20th-century cookbooks<\/h2>\n

The name malva pudding also appears in a 1912 book by Mrs. P. W. de Klerk and in its 1924 Afrikaans edition. These were researched by cookbook scholar Hetta van Deventer and introduced by food journalist Errieda du Toit. However, they had no apricot jam, no alcohol and no step of soaking the hot baked cake with sauce; the sauce was served separately. Despite the same name, it was a different dessert from the malva pudding widely known today, in which the baked cake is soaked with sauce.<\/p>\n

The alternative name telephone pudding is likewise not a name that appears only in the recollection of recipes being passed on by phone. Cook Jeanne Horak notes that the 1918 edition of Mrs. D. J. H.\u2019s \u201cOranje Kook-, Koek- en Resepteboek,\u201d which she owns, contains a recipe using ginger and apricot jam. Whether its proportions were the same as the Pepler family\u2019s recipe is unknown, but warm desserts containing jam were also handed down under names other than malva pudding.<\/p>\n

Competing theories on the origin of the name<\/h2>\n

Explanations of Malva<\/em> are also divided among theories that link its texture to malvalekker<\/em>, the Afrikaans word for marshmallow, and theories that connect it to the sweet wine malvesy<\/em> or to the fragrant leaves of rose geranium. Food historian Hettie Claassens rejects the wine theory and focuses on the fragrant leaves used as a substitute for rose water. Meanwhile, cookbook author Dine van Zyl connects the name with a sauce made with wine. The 1912 and 1924 recipes of the same name include neither wine nor scented leaves. Opinions remain divided over where the name comes from.<\/p>\n

How it differs from Jan Ellis and Cape brandy puddings<\/h2>\n

Jan Ellis pudding is a closely related dessert in which a batter of jam, milk, vinegar and bicarbonate of soda is soaked with a sauce of butter, sugar, water and cream. There is also an outdoor method in which it is baked in a lidded cast-iron pot set over charcoal, with charcoal later placed on the lid as well to add heat from above.<\/p>\n

Cape brandy pudding has chopped dates and pieces of walnut in the batter. Part of the dates are softened with bicarbonate of soda and boiling water, the remaining fruit and the nuts are mixed in and the batter is baked, and a syrup is brought to a boil, with brandy added after the heat is turned off. Unlike the smooth malva with jam mixed in, it offers the texture of pieces of fruit and walnut along with the aroma of brandy.<\/p>\n

\n\"Malva\n
Malva pudding served in Nairobi (August 7, 2025). The dessert, baked in a small dish, is paired with an accompaniment in a separate dish. Photo: Superchilum \/ Wikimedia Commons<\/a> \/ CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>. Reduced-size version obtained from Commons. No content alterations or cropping by us.<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

A dessert also shared after a braai<\/h2>\n

Malva is not a dessert only for the cold season. Mendes also presents an example of serving it after a braai, an outdoor cookout. The cake, baked in a large ovenproof dish and soaked with sauce, is shared among many people. Adding cold ice cream to the warm cake also brings an enjoyable contrast in temperature.<\/p>\n

Glossary<\/h2>\n

Mrs. P. W. de Klerk \/ Mrs. D. J. H.<\/strong>: Authors whose names appear in South African cookbooks of 1912 and 1918, respectively. The names and ingredients of the desserts in the two books are not identical.<\/p>

Jeanne Horak<\/strong>: A South African-born writer on cooking and food culture. She introduced a 1918 cookbook in her collection and the warm puddings of home kitchens.<\/p>

Hettie Claassens \/ Dine van Zyl<\/strong>: A South African food historian and a cookbook author. They put forward theories linking the name malva to fragrant leaves and to sweet wine, respectively.<\/p>

Telephone pudding<\/strong>: Afrikaans telefoonpoeding<\/em>, \u201ctelephone pudding.\u201d A name that appears in Pepler\u2019s recollection of a dessert learned from her mother being exchanged by phone, and in a 1918 cookbook.<\/p>

Evaporated milk<\/strong>: Unsweetened milk concentrated by reducing its water content. It is distinct from condensed milk, to which sugar is added.<\/p>

Warren Mendes<\/strong>: A South African-born cook who has published a malva pudding recipe using evaporated milk.<\/p>

Cape Dutch<\/strong>: A term for the culture of Dutch origin rooted in the Cape region of South Africa.<\/p>

Jan Ellis pudding<\/strong>: A warm dessert of jam-filled batter and milk sauce, known by the name of rugby player Jan Ellis.<\/p>

Maggie Pepler \/ Michael Olivier<\/strong>: The former is the cook who brought the malva pudding recipe to Boschendal; the latter was in charge of the restaurant at the time and recorded the story and the recipe.<\/p>

Malva \/ malvalekker \/ malvesy<\/strong>: Respectively, a plant name, a word for marshmallow, and the name of a sweet wine. They appear in separate theories about the origin of the dessert\u2019s name.<\/p>

Errieda du Toit \/ Hetta van Deventer<\/strong>: A South African food journalist and a cookbook researcher. They investigated old recipes of the same name and theories about the name.<\/p>

Braai<\/strong>: A word for South African outdoor cooking over fire and for the gatherings around such meals.<\/p>

References<\/h2>\n
  1. \n

    Penguin Random House South Africa: Warren Mendes\u2019s Malva Pudding<\/a> \u2014 An excerpt from the cook\u2019s own cookbook. The division of evaporated milk between batter and sauce, the mixing order, holes and absorption, and serving after a braai. The division given in the article follows the ingredient list.<\/p>\n<\/li>

  2. \n

    Michael Olivier: Malva Pudding \u2013 the original (October 4, 2013)<\/a> \u2014 A first-hand recollection of the restaurant in the late 1970s, Pepler\u2019s recipe, covered baking and the relationship between underbaking and absorption, and derivative versions. \u201cOriginal\u201d is not treated as proof of the first invention.<\/p>\n<\/li>

  3. \n

    South African Tourism: Dessert Malva Pudding<\/a> \u2014 One-page PDF. Jam marked as optional, an alternative milk-based sauce, pouring in stages and making holes, and serving warm. Whether the Kondensmilch is sweetened is not asserted.<\/p>\n<\/li>

  4. \n

    Weg \/ Netwerk24: Jan Ellis-poeding<\/a> \u2014 The listed ingredients and all 4 steps, jam and milk, a pot over charcoal, and an absorbed sauce containing cream. The naming anecdote is not used as a confirmed origin.<\/p>\n<\/li>

  5. \n

    Phillippa Cheifitz \/ TASTE: Cape brandy pudding<\/a> \u2014 All ingredients and all 4 steps, dates and walnuts, treatment with boiling water, and brandy added after the heat is turned off.<\/p>\n<\/li>

  6. \n

    Huiskok \/ Errieda du Toit: Die misterie van malvapoeding (2013)<\/a> \u2014 The full text, including the author\u2019s own research and comparisons of cookbooks. Different versions of the same name from 1912\/1924, theories on the etymology, and rooibos and brandy recipes. It does not establish a single origin.<\/p>\n<\/li>

  7. \n

    Sunday Times, \u201cObituary: Maggie Pepler: Cook who put malva pudding on SA\u2019s tables\u201d (September 22, 2013)<\/a> \u2014 Pepler\u2019s own recollections of learning from her mother and of exchanging recipes by phone, and the spread to restaurants. Recollections are distinguished from contemporaneous sources.<\/p>\n<\/li>

  8. \n

    Jeanne Horak, \u201cJan Ellis pudding \u2013 a classic South African dessert\u201d (2009)<\/a> \u2014 An introduction to a 1918 cookbook in the author\u2019s collection and a telephone pudding containing ginger and apricot jam. The full ingredients and steps in the original book were not seen this time, and identical proportions to the Pepler version are not established.<\/p>\n<\/li><\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    A warm, sweet sauce is poured over the baked cake. South Africa\u2019s malva pudding is a dessert whose finishing continues even after it comes out of the oven. On the plate it looks like a cake, but inside it holds plenty of moisture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":7232,"menu_order":96,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_parade_sweetlore_meta":{"en":"Malva Pudding","subtitle":"A South African dessert of baked cake soaked with warm sauce","topics":"Baked cake \/ Apricot jam \/ Warm sauce \/ The South African table","country":"South Africa","show_toc":true,"ingredients":["fruit","egg"],"texture":[],"occasion":[],"method":["baked"],"season":[]},"footnotes":""},"sweetlore_category":[164],"class_list":["post-8325","sweetlore","type-sweetlore","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":{"sweetlore_related_products":null,"sweetlore_related_faqs":null,"sweetlore_related_voices":null,"sweetlore_related_mode":"manual","sweetlore_related_articles":[8310,8272,8273,8280,8281,8282,8290,8322]},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t