Super Fast Extra Speedy Banana Steamed Pudding

Is anyone actually any good at shopping in the sales? I went out the other day to try and get myself a couple of tops suitable for work, maybe a day dress if I could find one, and three hours later came home to shout 'Clothes are stupid and I hate everyone' at my boyfriend. I tried one dress on only to find out that what I thought were frilly sleeves was some sort mini cape attached at the neck. Thanks but no thanks, mate.

I mention this only because when I intended to get something nice to wear I instead came home with a milk jug and a pudding bowl.

Pictured: Not a frock.

And since I have a pudding bowl now, I get to make my Super Speedy Steamed Pudding.

I based this on a recipe for a microwaved steamed pudding I got from a Gary Rhodes (remember him? Spiky hair, bit of a tit) dessert book. It's a useful stand by if you're, say, a teenager and your mum has some people round to dinner and thinks there's enough food so doesn't bother with anything for afters, and then the guests look around like 'Yo, where's my pudding?', so you excuse yourself for ten minutes and come back with a steamed syrup pudding for six. Major kudos, there. That one'll keep you in the good books for a while.

The original is basically a Victoria Sponge recipe cooked very quickly in a microwave, with a bit of golden syrup at the bottom of the bowl so when it's turned out the syrup runs down the sides. The only problem I found with it is that it can be a bit on the dry side. When thinking about how to rectify this, I remembered that whenever I make banana cake it turns out a bit on the wet side. Can you see where I'm going with this? Excellent.

My pudding bowl is only small (holds 450ml), so double the quantities if you have a bigger one. This will serve 4.

You will need:

Half a large banana
2 tablespoons golden syrup
1 egg
75g self-raising flour
50g sugar
50g butter or marge
Vanilla essence

Mash the banana with the syrup and put half in the bottom of the pudding bowl.

Add the rest of the ingredients to the remaining banana mixture and beat until smooth. Pour on top of the banana syrup into the pudding bowl.

Cover the bowl with cling film, and pierce the top once with a knife.

Cook in a microwave on full power for 4 minutes.

Turn the bowl out onto a plate, and serve immediately. With cream.

From start to finish I would say this takes 7-8 minutes, so if someone is dying from not enough pudding and needs emergency intervention, this is definitely the one to make.