Self Saucing Butterscotch Pudding magic – one batter transforms into a warm butterscotch pudding cake AND butterscotch sauce! The cake is fudgy and moist, and the sauce is rich and indulgent, just like a homemade caramel sauce.
This recipe is the butterscotch version of everybody’s favourite Chocolate Self Saucing Pudding. Just as quick, just as easy, just as loved!
Self Saucing Butterscotch Pudding
There’s something childishly satisfying about self saucing puddings. I love the magic of it – one batter making a warm pudding plus a sauce.
And I love the cosiness of puddings. Put a delicately crafted chocolate masterpiece next to a “rustic” bowl of apple crumble topped with a melted mess of ice cream, and I’d choose the crumble any day and twice on Sunday.
So – 6 tier cakes you may never find on here (2 tier is my limit, it seems).
Rustic puddings and cosy crumbles? You will find lots of them here. Aforementioned Apple Crumble has much company, including Strawberry Crumble, Caramel Baked Apples, Sticky Date Pudding, Bread and Butter Pudding and of course, everybody’s favourite Chocolate Self Saucing Pudding.
And this Butterscotch Pudding is the latest to join the gang!
How to make Butterscotch Pudding
I promised you quick and easy, and I did not exaggerate.
Essentially, what you do is make one simple batter, then sprinkle the top with a sugar-cornflour mixture and cover with hot water. Then as it bakes, the sugar-cornflour mixture sinks to the bottom (I like to imagine all sorts of wonderful things happen as it passes through the pudding sponge) and it bubbles away and thickens under the pudding as it rises into a fluffy, moist cake.
It’s like…. magic!!
I love how it looks so innocent with it comes out of the oven… no hint of all that gorgeous butterscotch sauce underneath!!
What goes in Butterscotch Pudding
And here’s what you need to make it. Very few ingredients!
Just a note on a few of the items:
DARK brown sugar – using dark rather than normal brown sugar intensifies the butterscotch flavour of the pudding and the sauce. So use it if you can – but it’s still well worth making even if you only have normal brown sugar!
Golden syrup – an Aussie/UK syrup used in baking, such as Anzac Biscuits. It has a caramel type flavour which makes it ideal to use in the pudding to give it a butterscotch flavour without making a caramel the traditional way with butter and sugar. It’s not widely available outside of Australia/NZ/UK though here it is on Amazon.com ($3.63 for a can).
Best substitute golden syrup
Dark corn syrup (this is ideal), honey or maple syrup. Any of these will be fine because most of the butterscotch flavour in this overall dish comes from the sauce!
PLENTY of Butterscotch Sauce!
This recipe makes a generous amount of Butterscotch Sauce because I can’t imagine anything more disappointing than cutting through hot pudding only to find little or no sauce underneath. 😩
So this recipe makes almost 50% more sauce than usual Butterscotch Pudding recipes which provides some margin for error, and differences in oven temperature, depth of baking dishes…. and all the other little things that can affect the outcome of a recipe.
The other nice thing about this pudding is that it’s not too sweet. Butterscotch sauce is typically made with just butter and sugar (like this caramel sauce) but in this Pudding, the sauce is also thickened with cornflour/cornstarch which means less sugar is needed to achieve the syrupy consistency.
Which means you can totally justify topping with ICE CREAM!!! In fact, scratch that. Ice cream is mandatory!! – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
More warm, cosy desserts
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Self Saucing Butterscotch Pudding
Ingredients
Butterscotch Pudding:
- 1/4 cup (50g) dark brown sugar , packed (Note 1)
- 1 1/4 cup (185g) plain flour (all purpose flour)
- 2.5 tsp baking powder
- 100g / 7 tbsp unsalted butter , melted
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup (125ml) milk (full or low fat)
- 4 tbsp golden syrup (Note 2)
Butterscotch Sauce:
- 3/4 cup (150g) dark brown sugar , packed (Note 2)
- 2 tbsp cornflour / corn starch
- 2 cups (500ml) boiling water
Serving
- Vanilla ice cream
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F (160°C fan).
- Grease a 6 cup baking dish (1.6L/1.6Q) with butter.
- Butterscotch Sauce: Whisk sugar and cornflour in bowl. Set aside.
- Pudding batter: Place sugar, flour and baking powder in a separate bowl. Whisk to combine.
- Add butter, egg, milk and golden syrup. Whisk until mostly lump free.
- Scrape into baking dish and smooth surface.
- Sprinkle Butterscotch Sauce sugar mixture all over surface.
- Pour boiling water over the surface over the back of a dessert spoon held as close to the batter as you can (to soften the pour so it doesn’t break the surface of the batter).
- Transfer to oven, bake 40 minutes or until skewer inserted into the cake part comes out clean.
- Cut through pudding to reveal butterscotch sauce underneath.
- To serve, scoop pudding into a bowl then douse with butterscotch sauce. Top with ice cream!
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer
Just had breakfast.
Now it’s snooze time.
We all want #LifeofDozer!!
Hi Nagi, I love your blog! Lots of recipe I tried and loved. I tried this one yesterday, the cake part turned out good, but the sauce part is not as liquid as yours, instead it almost looks like jelly. I believed followed the recipe exactly. Any idea what could be wrong with my pudding? Love the taste, hoping to make again, but with more liquid sauce. Thank you so much!
Hi Syulie, sorry you had issues here, sounds like your sauce thickened too much – did you stick to two tablespoons of cornflour? N x
Hi Nagi, thank you for the reply! I did stick to 2 tablespoons of cornflour. I will definitely try again and reduce the cornflour, maybe to 1 tablespoon and see how it goes. Not soon but when I do try again I will update you. Thank you again for all the beautiful recipes! I keep coming back for inspiration to cook every week.
Hi Nagi! Was just about to make this and realised im out of cornflour. Are there any substitutes I can use?
Hi Syulie, as long as it’s a 15ml tablespoon it should be fine – if you have a 20ml tablespoon that could have been the issue. I hope you give it another shot! N x
How does this pudding reheat? I need a bake ahead pudding for a Christmas in July get together
Hi Steph, I talk about this in the recipe notes. N x
A good pudding that was easy to make – the only downside for us is the taste of baking powder so next time I’ll only use a teaspoon of baking powder.
Hi Cara – that doesn’t sound right, the amount of baking powder in this is the standard ratio for the amount of flour used. Is there any chance your baking powder is off? It can enhance the metallic flavour if it’s past the use by date. – N x
I had the same issue. My baking powder is fresh.
could you please tell me what size baking dish to use.
Thank you.
Tried it and it was a smashing hit!!! I’m inviting a big crowed to dinner and I want to make triple the quantity, what should I do with the ingredients?
I used a baking dish that can hold about 1600ml of water as the recipe recommends: 6 cup baking dish (1.6L/1.6Q)
Hi Nagi I would love to try this recepie can I make the batter in advance maybe an hour or 2 earlier then put the hot water and bake closer to the serve time ?
Hi Summer,
I wanted to make mine a day ahead,.. But once the liquid is added to the baking powder there’s no turning back! So I did steps 2-4 on day 1 and the rest on day 2. It turned out really well!
Next time I will add salt to the cake batter and sauce (salted caramel style), and chopped peeled cooking apple underneath.
I also want to experiment with using vanilla custard powder instead of corn flour.
Nagi, I love your recipes and newsletter! You explain everything so well, and all the hard work and heart that goes into your site really pays off. It’s by far the best recipe site I’ve found. And we get to see Dozer! 🙂
Hi Summer, no you can’t sorry, once you mix it, you’ve activated the raising agent and it needs to be cooked. N x
Made this last night. Had to use regular brown sugar.
It was so light and rised so much, delicious. No more packet puddings for us
I’m looking forward to making this tomorrow – cold nights call for hot puddings! Nagi, could you kindly advise if you use a 15ml or 20ml tablespoon for the measurements? Thanks very much!
Thank you for this recipe! It’s our go to pudding and we make it all the time.
Unfortunately I just realised we don’t have enough butter in the fridge! Can we substitute with oil? If so how much? Thank you
Hi Hailey, that depends on how much – I would think up to half would be ok! N x
It’s only 9:30 in the morning and I want to eat it now! Can you make this in individual portions? What would the approximate cooking time be? Love love love your blog Nagi!
Hi Jehan -I haven’t tried to be honest! N x
Have you tried the chocolate self saucing cake with the butterscotch sauce from this recipe???
Hi Sarah, I haven’t! N x
Could I substitute maple syrup for the golden syrup
Hi Nagi,
My sister made this last night and it’s been on my mind All day today 😋 It was scrumptious!
I was just wondering, how much does one serving weighs if made to serve 6 people?
Thanks for the great recipe!
Hi Marie, subs are listed in the recipe notes. N x
Well this was a fun cake to make. Easy, but felt creative. I shared the Nagi love with this dish tonight at my in laws. The sauce was thicker than the pictures though – I think I didn’t reheat it to a hot enough temperature before serving. Tasted great though and smelt yummy !!
Hi Stephanie, you can always thin it out with a little more cream too if you find it too thick 🙂 N x
Amazing! Delighted thanks so much. The sauce is perfect. Huge thumbs ups.
Thanks so much Lisa! N x
Nagi – another amazing recipe!
Thanks so much Bella ❤️
You make the best recipes, Nagi! This one is amazing. I used freshly milled soft white wheat for the flour, honey instead of syrup, and added 2 tsp Maple extract to the 2 cups boiling water. And served with ice cream, of course! Couldn’t get any better than that!
Ice cream is a MUST Rachel 😂 I’m so glad you enjoyed it! N x
100% as described.
Perfect amount of sauce, loads of it like promised!!!
Came out perfect and was absolutely delicious. I am trying to chocolate one on the weekend.
Going to cook it tomorrow night for family and friends. Looking forward to tasting it. Been craving for weeks!!
Amazinggggggg this is sooo good. Im gonna try it soon. A question…can I make this in like individual bowls…..if so what kinda ones do u suggest apart from ramekins?
Can this be done in a slow cooker? I saw someone else had a go in the microwave in the comments section
Hi Emily, sorry this recipe as written will not work in a slow cooker – N x
De-licious!! We almost licked the pan.
I wouldn’t judge Janet 😉