Eve's Pudding Recipe

1. Preheat the oven to 180 ºC (350 ºF). Peel and core the apples, quinces and pears, and cut them into large wedges. Halve and stone the plums (their skin can be left on). Place in a big saucepan with the butter, brown sugar, spices and bay leaves, give it a stir and stew gently for 20 to 30 minutes with the lid on. When the fruit is soft and cooked, remove the pan from the heat, discard the bay leaves and put to one side.
2. To make the batter, cream the butter and sugar together with a wooden spoon in a bowl until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating them in well, then fold the flour. You can make this in a food processor too, it's up to you.
3. Using a slotted spoon, transfer half the cooked fruit (without the juices) into the bottom of a round, 20 cm (8-inch) buttered ovenproof baking dish. Top with the batter, then spoon over the remaining fruit, reserving the juices. Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 45 minutes, or until golden brown and risen. To check whether it's cooked through, stick a skewer or small knife into the middle of the sponge - if it comes out clean, you're in business.
4. Slice the vanilla pod in half lengthways and scrape the seeds out using the back of your knife. Put them into a bowl with the cream; don't throw the empty pod away - you can use this to make vanilla sugar later. Lightly whisk the cream and vanilla seeds with the icing sugar until it forms soft peaks. Fold in the whisky. Serve straight away with big dollops of the cream and a drizzle of the fruit juices.

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Note: Although the original recipe says to add all the fruits at once, for better results we add them at different times. We start by adding the quinces, then 5 to 10 minutes later we add the apples and pears, and finally the plums in the last 5 to 10 minutes. Cooking the fruit this way will make sure that everything is cooked evenly.