Orange Caramel Sauce (makes 2 cups)
1 ½ cups caster sugar
300ml pure cream
½ cup fresh orange juice
Ginger & Pudding
200g unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
1 cup treacle
⅓ cup firmly packed brown sugar
4 x 50g eggs, lightly beaten
2⅓ cups self-raising flour
3 tsp ground ginger
¾ cup buttermilk
⅓ cup finely chopped naked or crystallised ginger, plus extra for decoration
Vanilla bean ice cream, to serve
To make orange caramel sauce, place sugar and 3/4 cup water in a medium saucepan over a low heat. Cook, stirring until sugar has melted. Increase heat to medium. Gentle boil for 12 to 15 minutes or until deep golden in colour. Remove from heat. Carefully stir in cream and juice. Return to medium heat. Gentle boil for a further 10 minutes or until thickened. Cool to room temperature. Cover and refrigerate until needed.
To make ginger and treacle pudding, place a heatproof upturned saucer in the base of a large saucepan. Pour with boiling water until one-third full. Grease an 11cm deep, 19cm (diameter) x 9cm (base), 8-cup (2-litre) capacity pudding basin with butter. Line base with a small circle of baking paper.
Beat butter, treacle and sugar in an electric mixer until pale and creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mixture will look curdled at this stage. Add combined sifted flour and ground ginger, buttermilk and crystallised ginger. Beat on low speed until smooth.
Spoon mixture into prepared pudding basin. Smooth top. Cut a 30cm sheet of baking paper and foil. Fold to make a wide pleat in the centre. Place over pudding, foil-side up. Tie with cooking string and secure with lid. Transfer to saucepan. Top up with boiling water to halfway up the pudding basin. Cover saucepan with a tight-fitting lid. Gentle boil for 3 hours or until a skewer inserted into centre of pudding comes out clean.
Carefully remove pan from saucepan. Rest for 25 minutes. Invert pudding onto a serving plate. Pour over 1/2 cup of the warm sauce. Serve with remaining sauce and ice-cream. Decorate with extra ginger.