In the afternoon, we moved on from the shops of Stratford to the Three Way House Hotel in Mickleton, the home of the Pudding Club. As usual, we started the evening with a bottle of wine, before moving to the lounge for the Main Event. This year we were pleasantly surprised when the expected complementary glass of sparkling elderflower cordial was replaced by a glass of Prosecco. It’s at this point in the evening that the selection of puddings is revealed – and this year our party was sorely disappointed. The selection was:
- Passionfruit Charlotte
- Ginger syrup sponge
- Lord Randall’s pudding (an apricot and marmalade sponge)
- Bread and Butter Pudding
- Very Chocolate sponge pudding with chocolate sauce
- Jam and Coconut sponge
- Sussex Pond pudding – a steamed suet crust filled with sugar and whole lemons.
Wot no sticky toffee??!! We were outraged! It’s by far our favourite! None of us likes Sussex Pond pudding – who wants to eat a whole lemon? It really is a teeth-curdling as you would think. And Lord Randall’s pudding isn’t much better – the marmalade makes it quite bitter. I personally can’t stand desiccated coconut, so that was another pudding written off. I don’t like the texture of Bread and Butter pudding and this one was very soggy. And the Very Chocolate pudding smelled absolutely delicious, but I know from previous years that it is far too rich for me and I didn’t want to feel sick.
That left just two puddings that I actively liked – the ginger syrup sponge, and a really delicious passionfruit Charlotte. I also tried helpings of Lord Randall’s pudding and the Bread and Butter pudding, but didn’t particularly enjoy them. It turned out that the hotel hadn’t chosen the selection of puddings for the group this year. Instead, the organiser had asked the longest-standing members, who had been at least ten times each, for their favourites and had chosen from those. Though I find it hard to believe that Sussex Pond pudding was really the first choice of more people than Sticky Toffee and Date. I do hope that next year the organiser reverts to letting the hotel choose what to serve – after all, they host Pudding Clubs over 50 times per year, so must have a good idea of what makes a good combination.