Maple Pudding Cake

Since spring is upon us, the maple trees are flowing with sap, and maple products are becoming abundant in grocery stores, I decided to make a warm, maple dessert to help take the still-present chill out of the air. I made a maple pudding cake, a recipe I came across in a newspaper a while ago. I don't bake with maple syrup very often, simply because it tends to be quite expensive, especially in the off-season. However, maple syrup can definitely be worth the splurge, as it was with this dish. The maple flavor, and sweet stickiness from the syrup made this an outstanding dish. 
To make this dish, maple syrup is boiled along with water, brown sugar, and a little bit of flour. This sauce is poured into a deep baking pan. Then a simple cake batter is whipped up and poured over top of the sauce in the pan. The dish is then baked for 30-40 minutes at 375◦F. The dish bakes up nicely into three layers: the sweet sauce, the risen cake on top, and a middle layer, where the liquid sauce causes the cake to bake into a pudding. This made a very nice dish, the cake rose nice and high, was a beautiful golden color, and had an excellent, moist, flavor and texture. The only issue I had with this dish was the sauce. I turned out very liquidy. The recipe instructions stated to heat it in a pot until it came to a boil, I did, and then I even let it boil for a few minutes to thicken a bit, but I guess it was not long enough. There also seemed to be an excess of sauce as compared to cake. The next time I make this dish, I will halve the sauce recipe, and maybe add a little more flour or substitute cornstarch to make it thicker, and boil it for a bit longer. Other than that though, this was a really nice dessert. And having some extra maple sauce around isn't necessarily a bad thing. We enjoyed this dish straight from the oven, refrigerated the leftovers, and enjoyed them cold. It is delicious both ways! It also stored well - especially the sauce. Maybe I will find a way to use that sauce sometime soon......