First, get cake – LOTS AND LOTS of cake…
Around this time last year, I featured my recipe for freckled pudding, a rich and satisfying dessert made with odds and ends of cake and bread left over from the Holidays. It was a simple thing, but rather sumptuous – a cakey pudding richly flavored with cocoa. It was just the thing to end meals made up of rehashed Christmas and New Year leftovers.
This year, I pretty much thought that the freckled pudding was not going to make an appearance. Well, that was until a whole banana loaf and a frosted chocolate roll showed up and claimed valuable space in the kitchen fridge. Seeing how the fridge seemed almost dangerously full, I decided to grab the loaf, the roll, the butt end of the pane al cioccolato I made for New Year’s Eve, a rather forlorn oatmeal raisin cookie, and a chocolate fudge cake a colleague gave me for Christmas.
As shown above, I hacked everything into solid chunks and soaked them in a milk-and-cream custard. But instead of using vanilla and almond extracts, I scraped in the seeds from one of the Bourbon vanilla beans I won from last year’s Vanilla Company contest on 80 Breakfasts. Using real vanilla instead of extracts makes quite a difference: the aroma is more fragrant and a subtle but discernible taste of vanilla can be detected over the richness of the chocolate and the banana.
Whatever you do, DON’T forget the ice cream!
So, if you find yourself with a tad too much cake left in your fridge, a number of sweet breads going stale in the bread-bin, or discover a number of biscuits hiding out in your cookie jar, start chopping ‘em up. (You need approximately 500 grams’ worth of chunked-up cake or bread and crushed cookies for this.) And, whatever you do, don’t forget to serve it with ice cream – vanilla, coffee crumble, or – the best pairing, I think – chocolate swirl or double-Dutch.
That is such a cute name! I have done the same when I’ve cooked for charity and you have leftovers!