Make a quick dessert from leftover cake and pudding!

My mom was always stretching food, and never wasting anything.  Once in a while (once every GREAT once in  a while), there would be left over cake.   So this trick works with any cake – frosting, no frosting, any filling.  Sheet cake, layer cake, bundt cake. Cake that’s slightly dry or starting to get stale.

Cut the cake up in cubes, about 1-1.5″ each.

dessert made with cake

cake cubed and ready for pudding

Make some cooked pudding.  It can be homemade (my favorite chocolate pudding below) or teh box cook kind.

Place the cake cubes in a individual serving dishes.  Make the pudding, and while warm, pour directly over the cake cubes.  The cake starts to absorb some of the pudding, and pudding helps moisten it even if the cake has start to turn stale.

This is great served warm while the pudding sets.  Otherwise the pudding will get a skin on it – you can cover with plastic wrap if you need to make in advance to avoid that.

It was one of my favorite childhood desserts – made from leftovers, and since we lived on a dairy farm, milk for pudding was never an issue.

What favorite childhood dessert do you remember?

Print

Cooked Chocolate Pudding

an old fashioned cooked on top of the stove kind of pudding.

Servings 4 servings

Ingredients

  • 1 3/4 cup milk
  • 1/3 cup sugar Cane sugar adds a bit of caramel flavor too)
  • 1/4 tsp salt, if desired
  • 1/2 cup choclate chips or 2 oz semi sweet chocolate
  • 3 tbls cornstarch
  • 1/4 cup cream
  • 1 tsp vanilla

Instructions

  1. combine the milk, sugar chocolate and salt in a heavy saucepan, and heat over medium -low heat.  Stir off and on until the chocolate melts. Do not let it boil.

  2. mix together the cornstarch and cream.

  3. Slowly stir the cornstarch mix into the hot milk.  Stir constantly over medium heat until it just comes to a simmer; don't boil. Reduce heat and continue to stir for another minute or two until it thickens.

  4. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla.

  5. To prevent a thick skin from forming on top as it cools, cover it with plastic wrap pushing the wrap to touch the surface of the pudding.  It can be poured into individual serving dishes, or into one large dish.