Microwave Spotted Dick is a seriously quick way to make a truly impressive version of this classic steamed British suet sponge. With a lemon spiked batter packed with currants, it comes together in 30 seconds with no need for an electric mixer. For absolute pudding perfection, simply add a dash of golden syrup when serving along with lashings of custard!
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Ok, let’s address the elephant in the room! Spotted dick is a pudding that has left most of us giggling for many years. But no matter how many attempts are made to rebrand it as “spotted richard”, spotted dick will always remain it’s best name.
Why is Spotted Dick Called Spotted Dick?!
We need to blame the Victorians for this one. That’s 19th century Brits, not residents of a particular state in Australia.
The spots come from the dried fruit dotted throughout the sponge. And dick is actually an old word for pudding. Or “puddick” as it once was. Other puddings also used to use the contraction like “syrup dick” but for some reason we’ve only kept using it for the spotted variety.
I’ve also learnt that “puddog” was also once used and some folks do call this pudding “spotted dog”.
The Microwave “Steamed” Sponge Pudding Collection
Find all of my best Microwave “Steamed” Sponge Pudding recipes in one easy place. From 10 minute everyday sponges to a festive favourite in a fraction of the usual time, the best thing is you’ll never know they weren’t steamed for hours!
Featuring jam, lemon, chocolate, syrup and mincemeat sponges plus an easy cheat’s Christmas pudding and some custard options to serve with them.
Traditional Spotted Dick Variations
As with many traditional recipes, everyone has their own memories of and ways of making spotted dick. There are a few constants.
- Suet is used instead of butter.
- It contains currants or raisins.
- It isn’t overly sweet.
- It isn’t generally spiced.
- More often than not, there is a lemon or citrus element of flavouring.
- It is steamed not baked.
The main difference is that some people make a thicker batter and roll it in muslin or cloth to be steamed. Others put the batter in a basin. For obvious reasons this recipe uses the basin method. The batter is also thinner than a traditional recipe to ensure the finished pudding is lovely and moist.
Another difference is the addition or otherwise of chopped candied peel. My trusty Be-Ro book includes it but I’ve decided not to use it in this recipe. Instead I’ve used the other common addition of lemon zest.
How to Serve Spotted Dick
Microwave spotted dick is almost always best served hot. This is true for all of my microwave sponge puddings but I think it is even more true for those made with suet. The texture of the cold pudding isn’t terribly appealing. 30 seconds per slice back in the microwave is usually enough to reheat. A little longer if it is fridge cold.
Just like with the pudding itself, the ways in which people serve it are varied. I’d only ever come across it served with just custard – I use my custard powder custard recipe which is my favourite kind.
One very common topping is a little sauce made from butter and sugar. Some also include lemon juice to complement the citrus in the pudding itself. Others just sprinkle over some sugar and others use straight golden syrup. And the Be-Ro book suggests a sauce made from golden syrup thinned down with water and lemon juice.
All these sauces make sense with the actual pudding not being overly sweet. To keep with the theme of adding a sauce but also keeping things very simple, I’ve suggested drizzling a little golden syrup over the sponge as its being served. As well as piling on the custard!
Ingredients for Spotted Dick
Suet
The suet is crucial for the pudding texture. Suet is fat taken from around kidneys of beef or lamb. It is a very traditional ingredient, especially in British baking. It is possible that you can find a block of suet fat at a traditional butchers but it is more usually bought dehydrated in packets.
The packet suet which is what I recommend using for this recipe, comes in little pellets and is coated in some kind of flour or starch to prevent the pellets from clumping. Atora is the most common brand in the UK and they use wheat flour. Supermarket own brand versions usually use rice or wheat flour.
I keep finding that there is more and more flour and less and less suet in the packets. This can really affect the recipe outcome if weighing the suet directly from the packet. To combat this, I highly recommend giving the suet a quick sieve before weighing it. A light flour coating is fine, you just don’t want any extra.
The other big choice you have with suet is whether you buy the meat version of vegetable version. The veggie version is made with oil and is formed to look and act exactly the same as the beef version. Although my carnivore tendencies are extremely high, I do tend to use the vegetarian suet option. Both will absolutely work.
You can also buy a light version of vegetarian suet. I would try to avoid this if possible as the richness from the suet fat is what makes spotted dick good. But if you need to use it, you can.
Milk and Eggs
I’ve not specified the size of egg or type of milk in the recipe. This is because you can be very flexible.
Anything from a medium to an extra large egg will work. Anything from skimmed to whole milk will be fine. If you only have cream to hand, water it down to make a milk consistency.
Sugar
I prefer to use granulated white sugar although some older recipes do specify brown sugar. You can use whichever you prefer, including white caster/superfine sugar but note that light brown sugar will add a caramel note to the pudding and it will be a little more dense.
I would avoid using dark brown sugar as you really start to change the pudding flavour and texture too much.
Flour
I’ve used self raising flour for ease as this already contains just the right amount of raising agent needed to make the pudding texture perfect.
If you need to use plain flour, you should add 1tsp of baking powder for every 100g plain (all-purpose) flour. Please do not confuse baking powder with baking soda as these are slightly different products which will produce different results.
Lemon
Using a fresh lemon does slightly go against my intention to keep this as a very simple pantry type recipe. But the addition of fresh lemon zest does really make a difference to the pudding so please use this if you can.
I use a fine microplane grater and an unwaxed lemon. Be careful to only take off the very top layer of the skin and don’t include much, if any, of the white pith. 1 tbsp is roughly the zest from one small to medium lemon. You don’t need to be super exact in the measurement.
If you don’t have a fresh lemon to hand but you have some bottled lemon juice in the fridge, add this to the batter instead in the same quantity. The flavour won’t be quite as fresh and fragrant but you will still get a hint of lemon
Currants
Currants are the most traditional small dried fruit to add to spotted dick. Realistically no one is going to complain if you use raisins or sultanas (golden raisins). Or even a mix.
Golden Syrup
The syrup is simply for drizzling over the ready to eat slices of pudding. You can warm it a little if you prefer but I do tend to buy the squeezy bottles so I just drizzle it straight over.
Golden syrup is often also called treacle in the UK but it is worth nothing that black treacle is a totally different product with a very distinct and rather bitter taste. Please stick with the syrup!
If you are outside of the UK, you may find you need to look for a British grocery section or buy golden syrup online. Lyles is the most common brand. When baking I would often suggest that corn syrup can be used as a substitute but I don’t for serving like this.
Be Flexible
You can be quite flexible with the flavours and additions to this fairly simple sponge pudding. Especially in regards to the flavour of the sponge and fruit that you add.
Instead of lemon, you could add orange zest. Or even add another flavouring entirely like ginger (use ground ginger) or almond (extract would be best.
Rather than currants, you can of course use raisins, sultanas or a mixture. You can buy bags of mixed fruit in the UK and these often also include finely chopped mixed peel which is fine to use. For something different, you can use glace cherries, finely chopped dried figs or even go more leftfield with something like dried apricots. Whatever you use should be dried rather than fresh as fresh will add moisture to the mix.
You can also make individual spotted dicks. Simply split the mixture between 4 x 250ml bowls and start with a 2 minute cooking time. You can cook for 30 more seconds at a time until you are happy it is cooked through.
Vegetarian or Vegan Microwave Spotted Dick
The pudding is easy to keep vegetarian by using vegetarian suet. Naturally if you use beef suet, it won’t be.
To make a vegan spotted dick you will need to make the following substitutions:
- Replace the egg with a liquid egg replacer.
- Replace the milk with an unsweetened plant based option.
- Use oil to grease the bowl and not butter.
Allergy Friendly Spotted Dick
This recipe is free from nuts.
Gluten Free: Replace the self-raising flour with a gluten free flour blend. If it doesn’t contain raising agents, you will need to add baking powder. You will also need to ensure that the suet you choose is not coated in wheat flour.
Dairy Free: Use a unsweetened plant milk instead of the regular milk. You should make sure to either use a non-dairy butter or oil to grease the bowl.
Egg Free: Replace the egg with a liquid egg replacer.
Please note that this recipe may contain other allergens not referred to above and any variations suggested have not been tested unless otherwise stated. For more information regarding any dietary information provided on this website, please refer to my Nutritional Disclaimer.
Equipment Notes for Spotted Dick
I think it should be quite obvious by this point that the speed of this recipe does hinge on having a Microwave.
I use the microwave on full power and the times given are for a 700/800x microwave. If you have a more or less powerful microwave, you may need to adjust the cooking times by 30 seconds one way or the other.
Cooking Dish
Despite the images in the recipe showing me using a glass pyrex bowl to make this sponge, I do more often than not just use a basic thin plastic mixing bowl. I own many of them in various sizes and use them for nearly everything. But they’re not very clear and are not helpful to show you what I’m doing!
You can really use any microwave safe dish you like. Plastic will not absorb as much heat as pyrex glass or ceramic so the cooking time I’ve given is less as the food itself will cook faster. The pryrex bowl that I have used in the recipe process images is 1 litre in size.
What you should avoid using is melamine or bamboo dishes. They absorb all the heat, get far to hot and leave your food uncooked.
A comprehensive list of the equipment used to make this recipe is included in the main recipe card below. Click on any item to see an example. There are no hard and fast rules so many items can be sensibly substituted to achieve the same results.
Get Ahead
This sponge batter comes together in literally minutes. If you wish to get slightly ahead, you can measure out all of the dry ingredients, fruit and zest into a bowl and measure the milk and crack the egg in a jug. Just before you want to cook you should mix everything together.
If you leave a batter to sit, the baking power will start to activate and you may not get the rise and texture needed during the cooking process. So I don’t recommend this.
You can in theory cook the pudding a day or two in advance and then reheat it to serve. But again, I’m not sure this really saves any actual time and the reheated pudding won’t be nearly as good as if made fresh.
Leftover Microwave Spotted Dick
Leftover spotted dick can be stored in the fridge for several days if well covered or in an air tight container. It can also be frozen. It is a good idea to cut the sponge into individual portions if freezing.
The sponge can be reheated in the microwave. If frozen it is best left to thaw first.
For something totally different, you can make a thin slice of the pudding and then fry it in butter until golden and crispy. Serve with the golden syrup for a very old school leftovers option.
Spotted Dick Tips
Don’t be alarmed at how wet the batter is. It is designed to be this way and it will cook in the microwave.
Be careful when removing the pudding from the microwave and turning it out. Use a good thick kitchen towel or oven mitts. This is especially important if cooking in a glass bowl. Also be careful of the steam as this can scald.
Don’t forget to let me know in the comments if you try making this recipe – I want to know what you think and if you made any substitutions, how did it turn out?
Still Have Questions?
Simple! Just contact me and I will do my best to help as quickly as I am able. Head over to my Contact Me page, any of my social media channels or post a comment at the bottom of this page and I’ll see what I can do.
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More…Recipes
The Recipe
Microwave Spotted Dick Recipe
Equipment
- Mixing Bowl – Medium 1 litre
Ingredients
- 100 g Self Raising Flour (Self-Rising)
- 75 g Suet - vegetarian if preferred
- 75 g Sugar
- ¼ tsp Sea Salt Flakes
- 1 Egg
- 125 ml Milk
- 75 g Currants - or raisins or sultanas
- 1 tbsp Lemon Zest
- 1 tsp Butter - or vegetable oil
To Serve (Optional)
- 2 tbsp Golden Syrup
Instructions
- Grease a microwaveable bowl with roughly 1 tsp Butter or Vegetable Oil.
- Measure 100g Self Raising Flour, 75g Suet, 75g Sugarr and ¼ tsp Sea Salt Flakes into a medium sized mixing bowl.
- Add 1 Egg and 125ml Milk.
- And then add 75g Raisins and 1 tbsp Lemon Zest.
- Use a spatula to mix all the ingredients together until everything is fully combined. This only takes a few moments. Note – Make sure to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl to make sure everything is properly mixed in.
- Transfer the sponge batter into the microwaveable bowl.
- Microwave on full power for 4½ minutes if using a glass/pyrex bowl and 4 minutes if using a plastic bowl.
- Once cooked the sponge may look a tiny bit wet on the top but don’t be fooled, the sponge will be fully cooked.
- Use a plastic knife or spatula to loosen the edges of the sponge from the side of the bowl.
- Carefully turn the sponge out onto a serving plate by placing a plate over the top of the bowl….
- …then flipping the bowl and plate…
- …and removing the bowl.
- Or simply use a large spoon to serve straight from the bowl.
- Serve in slices drizzled with roughly 2 tbsp Golden Syrup or plain if you prefer and lots of custard.
Lynn says
So easy and so tasty. Made this for my neighbour on his 100th birthday as it is his favourite pudding. Light and delicious 😋
Chloe says
I’m sorry my reply is so delayed, but this comment made my heart happy! Please with him a belated birthday from me!
Trevor says
What was the power of the microwave oven that was used in the recipe?
Chloe says
Hi, You’ll find this information under the “Equipment” section in the post.
Janice says
We love sponge pudding but hate all the steam, so this recipe has been a revelation! So quick and easy and it tastes just the same as a traditionally steamed pud!
Cat says
I’ve never made spotted dick before but thought I’d give it a go. It definitely won’t be my last time! Delicious!
C says
Recipe nice and easy, however don’t be tempted to use any out of date suet in your cupboard. It made the pudding taste of chemicals and it was not edible! Will try again
Chloe says
Absolutely very true, I have also been stung by out of date suet, it’s nasty.
As a note, I have changed your recipe rating from 4 to 5 stars. You’ve not stated any negatives for the recipe and have in fact sung it’s praises. As this is a rating of the recipe, not the date of your pantry items, I have changed it. Please do let me know if you disagree!
Karen says
This was so easy to make and I loved the proper hit of lemon. Pudding in minutes, I’ll be making this again.
Sisley says
This was so easy to make. I love being able to whip up a sponge cake in the microwave.