English cooking disaster # 7,365,484

When will I learn... all efforts at cooking here are just laughable. Tonight I made my first attempt at a traditional English apricot pudding (their version of cake - not baked, but steamed). This is how it worked out

DISASTER! but smells really good. Should look like a cake made in a jello mold turned out on a plate with toffee coating. think this falls under "complete failure"!
Very disappointing since pudding takes forever to cook on the stovetop (1.5 hrs +)
I know what my problem is though. One part of the recipe calls for baking soda and the other part calls for baking powder. I mixed them up and since I dont really understand the science of baking soda/powder, I didn't know how to counteract my mess-up. It's very confusing since the English version of soda is half strength, so if you are making US recipes with UK ingredients, you must double soda. If making UK recipe with US ingredients, I might need to half it. (that might even be wrong. It could be baking powder that is half/double strength.)
Regardless, it was a complete, globby mess. The real kicker is that I went to a cooking class and watched a lady make the same recipe, so I thought I had all the odds working on my side. Think again, Bridget!

Hope your dinner turns out well tonight.