‘Blinged-up’ puddings make festive tradition go up in flames

THE tradition of setting fire to Christmas puddings has survived across the centuries, but the festive ritual may be under threat from a new, trendy type of pudding.

“Heston Blumenthal-style” puddings adorned with gold dust, glitter and melting centres are taking over the Christmas dinner table, and account for a third of puddings being sold in shops, figures from pudding maker Matthew Walker show.

The puddings are designed to impress guests without the need for setting them on fire – indeed, it would be rather inadvisable.

Bejewelled cakes are a new and rapidly growing trend and were virtually non-existent five years ago, according to the cake manufacturer which makes 98 per cent of the country’s Christmas puddings.

This year supermarkets including M&S, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose will be selling “blinged up” puddings.

Flaming the pudding by pouring al- cohol over it is a tradition which is said to date back to Roman times and represents the passion of Christ.

The last time the ritual was threatened was in the 17th century when Christmas puddings were banned by Oliver Cromwell because he believed the ritual of flaming the pudding harked back to pagan celebrations of the winter solstice. In recent times it has been seen as an essential part of the theatre of Christmas day, but the modern evolution of Christmas dessert has caused families to stray from the traditional way.

Sarah Gibbons Cook, a product developer at Mathew Walker, said: “People cooking a Christmas dinner want a pudding which looks as though they have spent hours decorating it, when actually they have just taken it out of the box.

“The golden puddings are mainly inspired by Heston Blumenthal, who started experimenting away from traditional designs several years ago.

“Golden puddings are the kind of thing people bring on Christmas day as a gift to impress their grandparents.”

‘The golden puddings are mainly inspired by Heston Blumenthal, who started experimenting years ago’