Need some help tweaking a recipe! Poor man's pudding

[Johnny Matthews]

Hi guys,

I need some help tweaking a recipe, can't seem to get the flavor profiles right. Okay first things first, I am trying to come up with a vape version of a dessert very close to my heart. It is a French Canadian classic called Poor Man's Pudding. If you haven't tried it, you should really bake one tonight: http://www.ricardocuisine.com/recipes/378-traditional-poor-man--s-pudding
Many people here in Québec also like to pour some heavy cream on top. (Hey, I never said it was healthy )

What makes this "cake" unique, is that while it is baking, the brown sugar melts and caramelizes and creates an amazing syruppy liquid in which the cake bathes. The syrup soaks into the cake and creates pure sweet happiness.

Now, the problem I am having is I just can not get that oozy, sweet, wet brown sugar syrup taste in the mix. I have tried several versions, all vapeable, but not satisfying. Flavors tried:

Cake:
FW Yellow Cake
FW Tres Leches
FA Cookie
FA Custard
FA Vanilla Classic

Syrup:
TFA Brown Sugar
FA Caramel
FA Butterscotch

Others:
FA Fresh Cream

I am getting a bunch of caramel-y cakes, but they are mostly flat and nothing that quite tastes like poor man's pudding. Please help!

 

[Huckleberried]

Do you have some FA Jamaican Rum? I bet that would be perfect mixed in your "syrup" base. In addition to, not necessarily instead of.

 

[Johnny Matthews]

Unfortunately, one of the only non-tobacco FA flavors I DON'T have...
Only boozy flavors I have are FA Brandy & TPA Kentucky Bourbon, don't know if any of those two would work as you suggest.

 

[Huckleberried]

Well, while I was reading your post, my first thought was KY Bourbon, but considering you want syrupy and I assume, sweet syrup, maybe the Brandy would work fine, really. Hmm. Make 2 and compare The rum would definitely give sweetness and would be my first choice. KY Bourbon is a dead on flavor match imo. Brandy is useful in bakery, too, though.

Marshmallow?

 

[Johnny Matthews]

Will do Huck, will do!

 

[Johnny Matthews]

Bump, anyone? Would I be lucky enough to have @HeadInClouds chime in?

 

[HeadInClouds]

Hey, I saw you tagged me! It's French-Canadian and has no maple?! FA Maple is good and strongly sweet, sure seems like a logical addition.

When I was new to DIY I used FW Tres Leches quite a bit. It's a pretty good representation of the real dessert. looking at your pudding recipe versus a recipe for real tres leches (like this one: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/tres-leche-cake-recipe.html ) seems like you shouldn't need so many ingredients. Maybe back up, try Tres Leches standalone and really think about what flavors are missing. It has the bakery, the vanilla, the milk and cream, even some caramel - and it's sweet. FA Custard's citrus note would be out of place, I'd guess. In real baking, brown sugar plus butter (or milk fat like in cream) when baked together makes butterscotch, so that's a flavor I'd keep. Maybe a little bit of brown sugar if your dessert leaves it half-cooked. And are you sure there's no maple? FA Maple Syrup would sure be compatible...

 

[Johnny Matthews]

Thanks for the input HIC! Funny you speak about FA Maple Syrup, it was the next ingredient lined up for testing, just got it in! Some people here add some maple syrup to the recipe, but personally I prefer the original with brown sugar only. I'll try to simplify things a little as you suggest and I'll post my next test batches with notes. Really wanna nail this down!

 

[CYGNUX1]

Any Updates for that recipe? There is a frog here waiting to vape it!