Banana butterscotch pudding, wonder and mosaics

When a week starts with warming banana butterscotch pudding, you expect good things of the world.  And when you expect good things of our world, it means that life should drop into your lap like a plump shiny crisp apple from the tree.  But recently I have been reading R. J. Palacio's amazing novel Wonder.  It has made me think about luck and blemishes and generosity that makes a apple falling in your lap so much more complex.  Just like the mixed blessings of manky bananas that can be baked it in a pudding to send warm vibes through your family.

So let me tell you that the week did not deliver the goods in the way I had hoped.  Firstly I went to a mosaic workshop on the wrong day.  Then Sylvia lost a fob that locks the car by tossing it in the air and it landing in a tangle of bushes.  Then she got scratched by our cat, on the nose.  Finally yesterday I found my wallet missing as I was about to leave the house. 

The above photo of the book, Wonder was taken at the Vegie Bar with the Miso Mushrooms and Sourdough with Macadamia Feta.  Wonder is about a 10 year old boy with severe facial abnormalities and his challenges in starting school.  It made me ache and cry and smile and want to be a better kinder person.  There is a part in the book that I love when one of the characters talks about life seeing random and yet the universe "takes care of its most fragile creations in ways we can't see".  Indeed, we are all more resilient than often we see. 

And so, I can tell you that the universe took care of me this week, even though perhaps it did not seem so.  When my friend discovered the mosaic workshop was not on, she came over and we enjoyed a cuppa in some welcome winter sunshine and then we had a fun afternoon at the park where we bumped into other friends.  The car fob is something I have worried about losing because the other one was already lost and getting it copied has been a headache.  I was relieved that with the help of our local mechanic we have sorted the car locking system.  The scratch hasn't bothered Sylvia as much as I feared it might and life goes on - it was an accident.  And my purse was at work so my boss was delighted to have me in unexpectedly because if you find yourself in at work it is hard to just walk in and out without looking around you and doing what you can to help out.  I might have missed my body balance class but I had a decent amount of cycling to get to work.

The universe  looked after us in ways we did not imagine.  As always I could complain about more, I could be grateful for more.  But life is ok.  And today, we got the date of the mosaic workshop right.  It was my first time doing any mosaics.  I have much to learn but I was glad to have a go.

Likewise, my banana butterscotch pudding was not perfect but I was pleased to have finally tried one.  I checked out a few recipes and was glad to see Kari's recipe at Bite Sized Thoughts to warn of how sweet it was.  I reduced some sugar and then tinkered more.  My notes show that next time there will be some changes.  Yet I would eat that pudding all over again as it made me very happy to dig in to the plump sponge cake and spoon sweet butterscotch sauce all over my serve.

I am sending this pudding to Honest Mum for Brilliant Blog Posts

More butterscotch recipes on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
Brownies with butterscotch chips
Butterscotch pudding (v)
Butterscotch layer cake
Butterscotch surprise cake
Cranberry, apple and butterscotch muffins
Microwave self-saucing butterscotch pudding (v) 

Banana butterscotch pudding
Adapted from Bite Sized Thoughts
Serves 6

3 tbsp butter*
1 tbsp golden syrup
2-3 ripe bananas, 2 mashed and 1 cut into slices
1 cup milk*
1/4 cup  sugar 
1 egg OR1 flax egg*
1 tsp vanilla
2 cup plain flour*
5 tsp baking powder

Sauce:
1/2 cup brown sugar*
1/4 cup golden syrup
1 cup hot water
pinch salt*

Melt butter and golden syrup together (I used the microwave).  Stir in 2 mashed bananas, milk, sugar, egg (or flax egg) and vanilla.  Gently mix in flour and baking powder to make a batter.  Place batter in medium baking dish.  Lay slices of 3rd banana over the top.  Mix sauce ingredients together and pour over batter.  Bake at 160 C for 45-60 minutes until the pudding is golden brown and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.

* NOTES: 

• I used a flax egg, nuttalex margarine and soy milk so mine was vegan.  
• A flax egg is a 2 tablespoon of flaxmeal or ground linseeds mixed with 3 tablespoons water.  
• I added quite a bit more flour than Kari's recipe so I might scale it back to 1 1/2 cups flour (and 4 tsp baking powder) to have a better cake to sauce ratio.  
• The cake wasn't overly sweet but the sauce was quite sweet and I would reduce the sugar in it to 1/3 cup in the sauce next time and have added in pinch of salt to the sauce.  
• I did not have the third banana to place over the top of the pudding which might have made the cake sweeter.

On the Stereo:
Song of Evil Reindeer: Reindeer Section