The power of British puddings

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Posted at 10:40AM, 25 January 2008 by Graham Holliday - blogger

Moving on from evangelising the cultural history of the British transport cafe I thought I'd step further down the menu and delve deep and far into the wondrous and oft forgotten world of the British pudding. Sussex pudding, Jam roly poly, spotted dick, rhubarb and custard... they're all almost hip these days, and quite rightly so. British food bloggers agree. One blogger, Rosie bakes a 'peace of cake', recently started a British Pudding Day. The idea is simple; you bake a cake, you make sure your creation is British and you enter it into the British Pudding Day. Come judgment day, there are no judges and there are no prizes, but there are plenty of participants, bags of recipes and buckets of banter in the comments.

Perhaps us Britpud aficionados don't shout loud enough and we've the likes of Rosie to thank for shouting for us. But beyond homecooking and foodblog stalking there's at least one other place that will find a welcome to all pudding addicts. The Three Ways House Hotel is located in Chipping Camden in Gloucestershire and the owners run a Pudding club. On a nightly basis the hotel wheels out a staggering seven strong pudding trolley.

While not strictly pudding territory, we're still in the dentist worrying arena and Anna is something of a dessert archivist. She seems to spend her free time digging around libraries and rifling through dusty, old recipe books to uncover the forgotten delights of Holywake Bake Cake, Bath Buns and Coventry Godcakes.

I'm not anywhere near as obsessive as Anna, I do like a good delve into the pudding trolley. I might be able to rustle up a decent raspberry and apple crumble, but I get nervous when it come to the trickier end of the pudding spectrum. Fortunately, I work for the Frontline Club and our menu extolls Britishness throughout. Including a particularly wicked Sticky Toffee Pudding and a light-as-you-like Queen Mab's. In fact, it's so light I think I'll be asking chef for seconds this coming weekend.

Comments

Holly

25 January, 4:03PM
Holly

Ahhh, sticky toffee pudding, and custard of course! What a dream. There are some good ones on this site actully. I know what I'll be making this weekend. Yum!

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BB+BuB

25 January, 4:26PM
BB+BuB

I love to bake British puddings and cakes. Nothing is more welcoming on a summers than a freshly baked Victoria Sponge with whipped cream and strawberries. I also adore Spotted Dick, Sticky Toffee Pudding and definitely Jam Roly Poly! I have to bake at least once every weekend I love cakes, bakes and puddings.

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mandy

26 January, 12:58PM
mandy

Living in France does make you all the more patriotic when it comes to British food and the infamous pudding in particular. I am proud to have introduced French friends to the delights of bread & butter pudding ( made with brioche admittedly!), steamed sponge puddings and Xmas pudding.The French adore crumbles, scones and crumpets but would rather die than admit that British food does have its merits!!

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noodlepie

28 January, 11:31AM
noodlepie

Mandy - couldn't agree more. When I was living in SE Asia I heard of a British pudding club in Phnom Penh. Now, if you've ever visited Phnom Penh you'll appreciate the guts of these guys, the place is as hot as the surface of the sun and hardly the place you'd think a British pudding would suit. Absence makes the heart... etc. :)

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shez

7 February, 8:49PM
shez

This was the topic of conversation at lunch today, Spotted dick, apple pie, rhubarb and gooseberry crumbles. Just fab British puddings to die for!

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clairu-claira

20 March, 8:42PM
clairu-claira

in goa they had a " tradidtional english" pudding called " hello to the queen", it was banana with crunched biscuits and chocolate sauce with icecream in a huge long dish, what is that all about???

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