Poor man’s cake is actually a bread pudding made with milk, butter, lemon zest and raisins. It’s a delicious treat and an even better way to reduce food waste. Leftover bread can easily be converted to dessert without much work, and it’s perfect if you’ve got a hankering for something sweet and need to feed a crowd.

Ingredients:

• 400 g (~14 oz) stale bread, diced
• 1 liter (~4 1/2 cups) milk
• 160 g (~3/4 cup + 1 tbsp) sugar
• 120 g (~1/2 cup) butter
• 120 ml (~1/2 cup) rum (or water + rum essence)
• 150 g (~5 1/3 oz) raisins
• zest of a lemon
• 6 eggs, beaten

Soak raisins in rum (or in water combined with rum essence).

Place sugar, butter and milk in a saucepan and bring it to a boil while stirring regularly. When the milk is boiling, pour it over the bread cubes, stir to mix well and set aside for 30-40 minutes.

Grease a 39×23 cm / 15×9 inch baking pan and preheat the oven to 180°C / 356°F.

Once the bread has soaked up all of the milk, add lemon zest, beaten eggs and raisins together with the rum to the bread and stir well. Tip the pudding mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.