Souffléd Pudding à la Royale

Pouding Soufflé à la Royale (a souffléd pudding inside a jam-spiral Charlotte) teaches that a moulded dessert is decided before the filling ever goes in: the biscuit rounds must meet edge to edge. Leave one gap and the batter slips behind them, welding the pouding to the mould and blurring its pinwheel coat. Close the lining and the rest is gentle heat and patience.

The original entry assumes a pastry brigade with sheets of biscuit, soufflé preparation, apricot sauce, and Charlotte moulds already waiting. The home equivalent is one thin sponge baked on a small rimmed tray, one 1.25-litre mould serving six, and a quick apricot sauce prepared while the pouding poaches in its bain-marie (hot-water bath). Making separate components in brigade quantities and holding them for service was scaffolding, so that goes; the tight jam roll, egg-white lift, bain-marie, and Marsala-scented sauce are the dish, so every one stays. One cook, one stove, one evening.

When it is right, the mould lifts away to reveal close red spirals around a tender ivory centre, with the warm apricot sauce poured from its own jug at the table. Before you touch the soufflé base, finish the step that decides everything: slice the roll evenly and patch every gap in the mould.