Poor Man's Pudding

It was my mom and oldest brother's birthday last week. My brother is the only one of my siblings that lives near me, so we have him over lots...our kids LOVE him. We had him over last night to celebrate his birthday. He is not a huge dessert person, but my mom told me that he loved this dessert growing up. So whether he still loves it or not, this is what I've made for his birthday for the past 2 years.

When it came out of the oven, it looked like a regular cake. A few minute later, it looked like the cake sank in the cake pan, with the syrup sauce overcoming it. tastes amazing!


If you have one, a bunt pan is the best for this one.


Preheat oven to  375 degrees.


Cake:

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3/4 cup milk

1. mix the dry and the wet ingredients separately. When combining them together, add a little dry, then a little wet, and then mix in between each addition. Keep doing that until it's all combined and end with the dry ingredients. Set aside.

Syrup Sauce:

• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1/2 cup maple syrup (again, the real stuff is 100 times better if you have it)
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 1 Tbs flour

1. In a sauce pan over medium heat, mix the brown sugar and the flour first.
2. Combine it quickly with the rest, and heat just enough for the brown sugar granules to melt.

NOW to baking:

1. Pour the syrup sauce in the bottom of your bunt pan (if you don't have one, just use a 9x13 dish).
2. Pour the batter onto the syrup sauce. Now this can be tricky. I just add clumps of cake batter next to each other until the whole pan is covered with batter. You shouldn't really see the syrup anymore.
3. Pop it in the oven for 30-40 minutes, until the top is lightly browned (use a toothpick to make sure the cake part comes out clean).
4. Spoon into a bowl, top with syrup sauce left from the bottom of the bunt pan.

Tip: a ball of vanilla ice cream plopped on top.--you HAVE to, it just completes this dessert.