Great Britain

Puddings
What is a Pudding ?
A pudding is the dessert course of a meal (`pud' is used informally). In Britain, we also use the words 'dessert, 'sweet'' and 'afters'.

There are hundreds of variations of sweet puddings in England, but each pudding begins with the same basic ingredients of milk, sugar, eggs, flour and butter and many involve fresh fruit such as raspberries or strawberries, custard, cream, and cakes.The more traditional and well known home-made puddings are apple or rhubarb crumble, bread and butter pudding, spotted dick and trifle. The traditional accompaniment is custard, known as crème anglaise (English sauce) to the French. The dishes are simple and traditional, with recipes passed on from generation to generation.
Favourite Puddings include:

○Spotted Dick (Also called Spotted Dog)
Spotted dick is a steamed suet pudding containing dried fruit (usually currants), commonly served with either custard or butter and brown sugar

○Trifle
Made with layers of sponge cake altternate with custard, jam or fruit and Whipped Cream. Sometimes alcohol-soaked sponge cake is used.

○Apple Crumble
Often served with thick cream, ice cream or custard.

○Hasty Pudding
A simple and quick (thus the name) steamed pudding of milk, flour, butter, eggs, and cinnamon.

○Bakewell pudding - also called Bakewell Tart.

○Custard
A thick, rich, sweet mixture made by gently cooking together egg yolks, sugar, milk or cream, and sometimes other flavorings. Most people today use a yellow powder mixed with milk, water and sugar. Custard can be served as a hot sauce, poured over adessert, or as a cold layer in, for example, a trifle. When it is cold, it 'sets' and becomes firm.

○Bread and butter pudding - old English favourite (see image)

○Semolina Pudding
A smooth, creamy puddmade of milk, eggs, flavouring and sugaring. Semolina is cooked slowly in milk, sweetened with sugar and flavoured with vanilla and sometimes enriched with egg. Semolina pudding can be served with raisins, currants or sultanas stirred in or with a dollop of jam.

○Roly-poly
A pudding made of jam or fruit rolled up in pastry dough and baked or steamed until soft.

○Treacle pudding
A steamed pudding with a syrup topping.

○Jelly and Ice Cream
A favourite party food for children.

Cakes
○Lardy Cake

○The Victoria Sponge - Named after Queen Victoria

○Parkin
A spicey cake combining oatmeal and ginger. Traditionally enjoyed around Guy Fawkes Night (November 5)

○Simnel Cake
A traditional cake for Easter and Mothering Sunday (Mothers' Day)

The Simnel cake is associated with Easter today, but was originally made for Mothering Sunday, the fourth Sunday in Lent.

Ingredients:
300g/10oz self raising flour
1/2 teaspoon mixed spice
110g/4oz butter or margarine
110g/4oz brown sugar
2 tablespoons of golden syrup
350g/12oz mixed dry fruit
2 eggs
approx. 100 ml milk to mix
700g Marzipan
2 tablespoons of icing sugar for decoration

Method
1. Rub the margarine into the flour.

2. Add all the dry ingredients i.e. sugar, spice and dried fruit. Stir well.

3. Add golden syrup and eggs.

4. Add enough milk to form a soft dropping consistency

5. Stir well to combine all the ingredients.

6. Grease a deep round 8 inch tin

7. Place half the mixture in the tin.

8. Roll out one third of the marzipan.

9. Place the marzipan on top of the mixture.

10. Add the rest of the mixture on top.

11. Smooth down the surface of the mixture.

12. Bake in the centre of the oven for 1-1 1/4 hours or until a thin metal skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes out without a trace of stickiness.

13. Let the cake cool for about 10 minutes.