Golden syrup puddings

I think these may be the most baked item of my life so far. They are what I feel like eating when I need some love and it is nowhere to be found. I bake them when I find Husband dusting the TV cabinet, grumbling that I need to 'contribute to this living community more'. By 'this living community' he means apartment and by 'contribute' he means, keep the place clean you lazy so & so. I bake them when my students tell me that the DVD that I thought was hilarious, and couldn't wait to show them is LAME. When a non-native speaker uses the word 'lame' you know it must be bad. I bake them when it has been raining the whole week and a check of the forecast makes me wonder how many people are contemplating ending it all because they can't stand another month of overcast, below 20 degree weather. Am I the only one who feels like making a cubby house with my doona and living in it forever?

I haven't been able to find golden syrup in Ulm so I get my sister to bring over the Lyle's brand from London.

These puddings are also pretty quick to put together, so I make them for dessert when people come over, timing it so that I can get them out of the oven just when the guests start wondering what's for dessert.
I guess what I am trying to say is, I make them all the time and I don't really need much of an excuse. Not very helpful for Gina and The Twins. Yes, I know, this is my first mention of Gina and The Twins but they're old friends. Gina and The Twins belong to my, er... midsection. Which seems to be growing though the rest of me has stopped. Causing, as you can imagine, some minor (at risk of becoming major) problems with proportion. So familiar have these disproportionate bits become to me, that I've named them. Don't let that put you off baking these. You are probably far more disciplined than I am and for the Australians heading into the colder months, you can hide your Ginas under you warm clothes. No worries. I got this recipe from a book called 'Old Food' by Jill Dupleix. My brother bought this for me when I was still in high school. A whole twenty dollars it cost him. He can rest assured, it wasn't too bad an investment.
Golden syrup puddings

4 tbsp golden syrup
140g butter
140g soft brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tbsp milk
140g self-raising flour

Heat oven to 180C. Butter four 200ml oven proof moulds, and pour a tablespoon of golden syrup into each one.

Cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add milk and stir in well, then add flour and stir in lightly, until the mixture is quite thick. Spoon the mixture into the pots until three-quarters full, and cover each one with buttered foil. Place in a baking tray of hot water and bake for around 45 minutes until the puddings rise, and spring back to the touch. Remove from oven, and rest for 5 minutes before removing foil and turning out the puddings carefully onto serving plates. Serve hot with pure cream or clotted cream.

Note: I usually bake these in a 6 cup muffin tray with a capacity of about 125ml per cup. I find these to be quite rich and this smaller serving size suits me better. I just butter a big piece of foil and cover the entire muffin tray with it, folding in the edges. Of course, if you bake them in pots the syrupy part is more moist and gooey then when you use a tin. When it comes to turning them out, I do so on a big plate or tray that can hold them all and then transfer them to serving dishes. The white bits you can see in the pictures are chopped macadamia nuts, I added 50 grams to the batter with the flour.