Baked Sweet Potato Pudding

Old Friends – the nostalgia that overcomes me when I meet or hear from old friends.  Friends I might know through school or college or work or just come across some place.  But meeting them after years always brings about a sense of as if I found something I had lost – the times spent together, the things we did together, the chats we had – just everything takes me back in time.  Social Network sites have been quite instrumental in helping me connect to old friends.  With some friends it is so easy to continue from where we left off.  With others it is still difficult – they changed, I changed, times changed.  But nonetheless, it is always nice to meet friends. 

A couple of years back I came across a dear friend I knew from childhood.  We used to play a lot together during the summers and were good buddies.  Then suddenly we all went different ways and I lost track of where he was or what he was doing.  Of course on my part I did not make any effort to keep in touch and as time went by, it was more difficult to reignite a friendship that was dead for so many years.  Finally we were able to track each other again and now keep in touch.  The first time we chatted, we spent a good hour getting updated on our personal and work life.  Now I make it a point to chat or write to him at least once every couple of months.  I do not want to lose a friend again.  Life is too short to lose friends.  Not too short though to make new friends.  So in honour of all my old friends and all those new friends I am going to make in the span of my life…here’s to you…baked sweet potato pudding – my favourite.

Preparation Time: 75 minutes

Serves: 6

Ingredients:

3 cups cooked, mashed sweet potatoes

1 ½ cups sugar

¾ cup melted butter

9 eggs

1 ½ cups orange juice

3 tablespoons rum (optional)

2 tablespoons raisins

1 tablespoon nuts, chopped

2 teaspoons grated lemon rind

½ teaspoon cinnamon powder

Method:

1. Separate the egg yolk and whites.  Keep 6 egg whites separately as they would be used later in the pudding.  
2.  Put the mashed sweet potato, butter, sugar, egg yolks, orange juice, raisins, rum, nuts, cinnamon and lemon rind in a large bowl.  Mix and beat well together.   
3. Whip 3 egg whites till stiff and fold into the mixture.  
4. Grease a baking tin and pour the mixture.  Bake at 180 degrees C for 1 hour.  Allow the pudding to cool.  
5. Beat the remaining egg whites till stiff and pour over the pudding and bake for another 15 minutes.