Chocolate Sauce Pudding

This pudding starts with the sauce on the top, which in the course of baking sinks to the bottom.  Very nice with cream or ice cream.

This is the original recipe, but I cut the sugar by a third, and it still worked fine.  I also used drinking chocolate for the topping, and omitted the sugar here.

If using a food processor, cream the margarine, sugar, and egg all together.

serves 4-6 hearty portions

Ingredients

2 oz margarine

1 egg

1 tbsp cocoa powder

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup self raising flour

1/2 cup milk

Sauce

1/2 cup sugar

1.5 cups hot water

1.5 tbsp cocoa powder

Cream margarine and sugar.  Add egg and beat well.  Fold in flour and cocoa alternately with milk.
Place mixture in a greased ovenproof dish.  Mix together sugar and cocoa and sprinkle over mixture.  Carefully pour hot water onto the mixture, over the back of a spoon.
Bake in a moderate oven (c.180 degrees) for 35-40 minutes.

Alternatives

For Butterscotch Pudding, omit the cocoa from the cake mix.  Gently boil together 3/4 cup brown sugar, 1.5 cups water, and 2oz butter for 5 minutes.  Pour over mixture and bake as above.

For Blackberry Pudding, omit cocoa from cake mixture.  Open a small tin of blackberries and pour entire contents, including juice, over the cake mixture.  The berries sink through the mixture as it bakes, and the juice forms a sauce at the bottom.