Chocolate Self Saucing Pudding

1. Light or dark brown sugar is fine.

2. Use Dutch Processed cocoa powder if you can. It's the up market cocoa powder, it's darker and has a more intense flavour. But normally I just use run of the mill cocoa powder.

3. 5 to 6 cups is around 1.25 - 1.5 litres / quarts. The dish pictured is 25 x 20 x 4.5 cm / 10 x 8 x 2.75". I often make this in a 20 x 20cm / 8 x 8" square pan or baking dish which yields a slightly thicker cake.

4. The purpose of pouring the water over the spoon as you pour it over the top of the pudding is to try to try to make the water pour gently onto the surface so you can a smooth surface. As you can see from my photos, I am hopeless at this and I have no shame about the nubbly surface of my pudding. In fact, I rather like it it - more crackly brownie-like bits!

5. The pudding needs to be served warm because the longer it stands, the more the sauce is absorbed into the cake and thickens up. Leftovers are lovely if reheated in the microwave because the chocolate becomes all melty again, but you don't get as much sauce as when it is made fresh.

I like to serve mine with ice cream or cream and strawberries. Sometimes I dust it with icing sugar / confectionary sugar to make it look prettier.

6. Nutrition per serving, assuming 6 servings.