Cinderella Pudding Recipe

As so often happens, this came to me through an unusual path. I am not a baker. I cook quite competently but the science of baking has always been more of a nuisance than joy to me. Heresy to some of my friends and family who love to bake, but that's me. I hate to follow recipes and baking really requires more exact measuring than I like to be beholden to.

To cover that lack, I have what I consider my "fake out" dessert making stand-by for the times when I must produce a dessert without the help of my favorite bakeries. It's quite simple but impressive. I use a Maryann cake pan.

I use a cake box mix and then take inspiration from the chosen cake mix flavor (I usually choose white, chocolate or carrot) to fill the well that the cake pan leaves behind. Pudding, jams, sauces, fruit, cookies, candy--the possibilities are endless and pretty much always a hit. And the well when filled with pudding type mix keeps the cake moist in the fridge for leftovers, too, rather a simple version of a poke cake. Win, win, win. Plus it tastes and looks like I did something special. Nope. I just own a wonderful cake pan and quite frankly filling that well is MUCH easier than frosting a cake and the presentation is gorgeous. I pretend to be a baker but I am anything but. And the family likes it enough that they still ask me to bring desserts when they know they will either get a version of a Maryann cake depending on the seasonal inspiration or a Publix bakery offering. Cause I do like cakes overall, I just don't want to actually make one from scratch. See some Maryann cake pictures to see what I mean at Pinterest.

So when people see these cakes they all want to know about the cake pan. One of my besties, Valerie, is a baker extraordinaire and she uses the pan with from scratch recipes that are divine but beyond my desire or skill level. We've both been fascinated by the pan's history since I discovered it several years ago--and it is pretty much the only time I introduced something baking related to Valerie's wide range of knowledge and skill. The pan has gone in and out of production since I bought my first one years ago but seems to have made a steady resurgence of late. Valerie recently discovered an antique version and was determined to learn its history when she realized its history was much longer than expected.

She didn't learn much, but along the way, she found this recipe for a Maryann style cake with a fitting title for the SurLaLune blog. I was tickled by it because I haven't read the word "syllabub" in all too long I realized. A very English recipe but found in Florida in 1914 since pudding as a synonym for dessert (a pudding that isn't American pudding a la tapioca or such) is even rarer these days, but perhaps more common than I realized in the United States in 1914. 

Source: The Tampa Tribune (Tampa, Florida, United States of America) · 30 Oct 1914, Fri · Page 13

If you're curious, Val says:

I can't find out who Mary Ann was! But I did discover that women had been making this type of cake but having to scoop out the extra cake. The pan seems to have come on the scene in 1921.

As for me, scooping out cake just means you get a preview that's even better than licking the mixing spoon. Clever bakers getting to make their cake and eat it, too!