Behind the scenes with the pudding makers

The artisan pudding
Claire Ptak has attracted a cult following for her cupcakes, sold on Saturdays from the Violet Cakes stall on Broadway Market, East London. But the Californian also makes an exceptional artisanal pudding. This year, a small flock of 50 Christmas puddings will join the vanilla-poached quince cupcakes of December.

“I was pretty shocked at first,” Ptak admits about her first encounter with a plum pudding. “I love dark flavours and think tradition in food is really fascinating. And I love candied fruits, so the idea of Christmas pudding was great. But a lot of the first ones I tried had this muddy, sweet, overwhelming taste.”

Ptak got to work, scouring cookbooks from Eliza Acton and Constance Spry to Nigel and Nigella. The result, made with mainly organic ingredients, is traditional yet distinctive. She uses butter instead of suet, which gives a slightly more cakey texture, because many of her customers are vegetarian and she considers vegetable suet “unnatural”. The puds come in old-fashioned tin basins with a blue rim and a big bow of crisp muslin.

One of the exceptional qualities of Ptak’s puds is the bright taste of orange, lemon, clementine and grapefruit peel, which she candies herself in December and January using organic Italian fruit. “I like the burst of citrus and then the starch and stout and the raisins, and then there’s a lot of brandy in there,” she says.

Ptak appreciates British festive baking traditions, from mince pies to Christmas cake. “I tend to think a lot of good dishes were created a long time ago,” she muses. “I’m really not one for molecular gastronomy. I love true flavours, and the recipes of the past are full of them.”

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We love them too! If you want to get your hands on one of these outstanding puds, just click on the links below:

Large Violet Cakes Christmas Pudding: Serves 9-10. £25. Buy now!

Small Violet Cakes Christmas Pudding: Serves 4-5. £13. Buy now!