Cynthia L. Herzog 
Serve this warm bread and butter pudding cake with custard. Photo: Nagi Maehashi
It cuts like a cake, is creamy like bread and butter pudding, and tastes like Easter. And best of all, you can assemble it the day before.
Ingredients
450 g warm cross breads (about 6), cut into 2.5 cm cubes
6 eggs
250 ml (1 cup) heavy cream
½ cup white sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup raisins
30g unsalted butter, melted
To serve
icing sugar, for dusting
pour the custard
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 160 C in forced ventilation mode (180 C conventional). Generously butter a 20 cm springform pan with butter.
2. Spread the pieces of bread on 2 baking sheets and bake for 15 minutes, stirring and changing the baking sheet halfway through. Remove and let cool for 15 minutes on the baking sheet.
3. Whisk eggs, cream, sugar, cinnamon and vanilla in a large bowl. Add the buns, toss to coat then let stand 30 minutes to absorb the egg mixture. Stir in raisins. (For the overnight version, refrigerate at this point.)
4. Pour the mixture into the prepared cake pan. Drizzle with melted butter, cover with aluminum foil and bake for 45 minutes. Remove foil and bake for another 20 minutes.
5. Remove from oven and let sit for 10 minutes, then run a knife around edge of pan before removing pan. Cut into wedges (generous!) and serve warm, dusted with icing sugar, with custard to serve.
This recipe is on Nagi’s four-day Easter menu
