Jam & Coconut Sponge with Pink Custard - Lavender and Lovage (2024)

My recipes for Jam & Coconut Sponge with Pink Custard is a real blast from the past, and was my favourite School Dinner’s pudding.

A Classic School Dinner Pudding

This is a REAL blast from the past, Jam & Coconut Sponge with Pink Custard was one of my favourite school dinner “afters” as we used to call pudding. And, my recipe shares a secret, for the pink custard, and how a friend who was a school cook used to make it. Suffice to say it’s not just normal custard with pink colouring, which wont give you that school dinners pink custard flavour.

The recipe that she shared for REAL school dinner’s pink custard was made with a packet of strawberry blancmange! I’m sure that they used tubs of the stuff and not just a sachet, as I did, but nevertheless, that’s the secret for the kind of pink custard I used to enjoy at school. And, as soon as I made and it tasted it, with a slab of jam and coconut sponge, I was transported back many years to a warm and cosy, albeit very noisy, school dining room, where this pudding was one of my favourites.

The jam and coconut sponge is a basic 8, 8, 8, 4 recipe – as in old money ounces, and you can use the all-in-one mix method with all of the cake ingredients, as it’s very well behaved. The yield is between 12 and 15 squares, depending on how you cut it, and whether you want old school “slabs” of sponge or something much daintier. Once you have sated your desire for Jam & Coconut Sponge with Pink Custard, the sponge cake makes a wonderful addition to afternoon tea, or will be well received in the school or office lunchbox.

Retro Baking

I’ve noticed a real increase in traffic to all of my retro baking recipes recently, and I think as this global pandemic remains with us all, there’s a real desire for old-fashioned recipes from our childhood. As well as older recipes from our parents and grandparents generation. Plus, as Autumn and Winter continues to spread their icy grip here in the Northern hemisphere, there’s also the elemental desire to hibernate with “Comfort Food”.

As well as today’s recipes for Jam & Coconut Sponge with Pink Custard, I’d like to take the opportunity to share some more “Old School” baking recipes that you might enjoy making. Some of them are from my childhood, what mum used to bake, and some are much older and come from my maternal grandmother, who was the queen of Rayburn baking, as well as never knowingly under catering – her tea time tables were much admired far and wide!

More Old-Fashioned Baking Recipes

• Easy Cornflake Tart
• Rock Cakes (Rock Buns)
• VE Day Condensed Milk Cake

• Retro School Dinner Iced Tray Bake Cake
• Australian Crunchies (Traybake)
• Drop Scones (Scotch Pancakes)

• “Cut and Come Again” Farmhouse Fruit Cake
• Mum’s Date Slice
• Melting Moments

See Also

Nan Mac's Mock CreamChocolate Chip and Chunk CookiesCookies Too Crunchy? Soften Them Up with This TipIngredient Substitution Chart

But back to today’s recipes for Jam & Coconut Sponge with Pink Custard – if you are hankering after this classic school pudding, I have shared both recipes at THE END OF THIS POST. And, PLEASE let me know if you make my recipe and if you and your family loved it as much as we do. Have a great week ahead, I’ll be back with some new edible CHRISTMAS GIFTS recipes to share with you, Karen

PIN me for Later

Jam & Coconut Sponge with Pink Custard Recipes

Jam & Coconut Sponge with Pink Custard

Yield: 12 to 15 squares

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 40 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

This is a REAL blast from the past, Jam & Coconut Sponge with Pink Custard was one of my favourite school dinner "afters" as we used to call pudding. And, my recipe shares a secret, for the pink custard, and how a friend who was a school cook used to make it. Suffice to say it's not just normal custard with pink colouring, which won't give you that school dinners pink custard flavour.

See Also

Ginger Chocolate Chunk Cookies

The recipe that she shared for REAL school dinner's pink custard was made with a packet of strawberry blancmange! I'm sure that they used tubs of the stuff and not just a sachet, as I did, but nevertheless, that's the secret for the kind of pink custard I used to enjoy at school.

And, as soon as I made and it tasted it, with a slab of jam and coconut sponge, I was transported back many years to a warm and cosy, albeit very noisy, school dining room, where this pudding was one of my favourites. The jam and coconut sponge is a basic 8, 8, 8, 4 recipe - as in old money ounces, and you can do an all-in-one mix with all of the cake ingredients, as it's very well behaved.

The yield is between 12 and 15 squares, depending on how you cut it, and whether you want old school "slabs" of sponge or something much daintier. Once you have sated your desire for Jam & Coconut Sponge with Pink Custard, the sponge cake makes a wonderful addition to afternoon tea, or will be well received in the school or office lunchbox.

Ingredients

• Jam and Coconut Sponge:
• 225g (8ozs)SR flour
• 225g (8ozs)white granulated sugar
• 225g (8ozs)Stork margarine, or butter
• 4 free-range eggs mixed with 4 tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (Optional)
• Strawberry or raspberry jam, or any red jam
• Desiccated coconut
• Pink Custard:
• 1 x 35g sachet strawberry blancmange mix
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 600ml (1 pint) full fat milk

Instructions

1. Jam and Coconut Sponge: Pre-heat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/375F/Gas mark 4 and grease and line a square ( 9" x 9") 23cm x 23cm baking tin with baking paper.
2. Put the SR flour, sugar, margarine or butter, eggs, baking powder and vanilla extract if using into a mixing bowl and beat with a hand hand electric mixer for 2 to 3 minutes, until all of the ingredients are amalgamated and the mixture is light and fluffy.
3. Pour the sponge mixture into the prepared baking tin and bake for 35 to 40 minutes until the cake springs back when touched in the middle, and is well risen and golden brown.
4. Remove the cake from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes before spreading the jam over the top, this is best done when the cake is warm. I used about 4 heaped tablespoons of jam. Then sprinkle over the desiccated coconut, be as generous as you like!
5. Cut into squares to serve whilst still warm, with pink custard.
6. Pink Custard: Put the blancmange mixture and the sugar into a mixing bowl and add a little of the milk to make a thick paste.
7. Heat the remaining milk in a saucepan until it is hot but not boiling.
8. Pour the hot milk over the blancmange mixture and stir well until dissolved.
9. Pour all of the mixture back into the saucepan and bring to boil stirring all the time so it doesn't "catch" on the bottom of the pan.
10. Once the mixture has thickened, remove from the heat, pour into a jug and serve with the jam & coconut sponge.

Notes

For a thicker custard, use 450mls (3/4 pint) of milk.

You can also use a raspberry blancmange mix.

I used Pearce Duff's Strawberry Blancmange mix, as it contains no artificial flavourings or preservatives in it.

You can use any flavour jam, but is must be RED!

Once cold, store the sponge in an airtight tin.

Reheat the sponge in the microwave for future pudding servings.

Seedless jam is usually best in this recipe.

Nutrition Information

Yield 15 squaresServing Size 1
Amount Per ServingCalories 147Total Fat 6gSaturated Fat 4gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 2gCholesterol 53mgSodium 102mgCarbohydrates 19gFiber 2gSugar 8gProtein 4g