Builders have helped me find a love for baking – try my bread pudding... | BBC Radio Solent's Lou Hannan

Last week I was talking about the new addition to my kitchen family – the air fryer.

Well, this week, it’s back to basics…

If you listen to the radio show, you’ll know that I’m having some building work done at my house at the moment. That’s a whole different story, but one of the things I’ve rediscovered is baking.

I’m aware you might be struggling to link the two however, when you have a constant stream of builders, roofers, plasterers, electricians and plumbers through your home, you soon realise they all have one thing in common. They love cake!

Now, I’m absolutely no Mary Berry. In fact, I struggle to add the water and eggs to a Betty Crocker cake mix.

But having taken a bit of leave from work to be around at home, I’ve actually quite enjoyed my new-found hobby.

I started simply with a Victoria sandwich (it HAS to be buttercream and raspberry jam in the middle), then moved onto the slightly more ambitious chocolate brownies.

With the latter, I soon discovered by the second batch that the trick is to switch the oven off five minutes before you think they’re ready to ensure that gooey bit in the middle.

My latest venture though left even me surprised as I didn’t even know what I was making… bread pudding! What a revelation!

Having a whole glut of leftover bread it was Boss Builder (they all have equally imaginative nicknames) who suggested bread pudding.

Scouring the internet for a recipe, the BBC Good Food site obliged and on I cracked with my bread soaking, mixed spice adding and butter melting.

The result? It was fantastic!

Even I ate some and it made me realise how bad we are at digging up the old classic recipes which use up leftovers and create pure stodge.

For anyone who hasn’t tried bread pudding, it’s very similar to bread and butter pudding but with even more fattening elements – and in a cake form.

I remember my nan cooking bread pudding when I was just a kid. I used to turn my nose up, along with her suet pudding and faggots (I’d still avoid the latter!)

However, it just goes to show, don’t knock it ‘til you’ve tried it!