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The Pudding Club

The Pudding Club at The Three Ways House Hotel, Mickleton
The Pudding Club at The Three Ways House Hotel, Mickleton. Photo by Glenn Wood, licensed under CC BY 2.0
England is famous for its clubs and esoteric societies some of which are downright eccentric. Chipping Camden in the Cotswolds is home to The Pudding Club where enthusiasts for all things sweet but mostly for proper puddings meet twice a month to indulge a passion for nursery afters. At least forty or fifty people attend each gathering. The Three Ways House Hotel at Mickleton near Chipping Campden has been the centre of The Pudding Club for the past 20 years. The club was set up in 1985 to preserve the best great British pudding recipes.

At each event after a light main course (to save room for the puddings), seven puddings are served to aficionados with some pomp and ceremony. A master of ceremonies asks the attending members to cast a vote on their particular favourite pudding of the evening while encouraging everybody to forget about calories and to eat with gusto!

A typical menu tasting might include depending on the season Sticky Toffee and Date Pudding, Apple Crumble, Spotted Dick, and the more unusual such as Sussex Pond and Lord Randall’s Pudding. Lashings of custard accompany each pudding and you can indulge in as many as you wish (within the club rules of course!). Over coffee and tea, you can reflect on your vote for the favourite pudding of the night.

The Pudding Club aims to preserve great British puddings and preserve them they do with a range of puddings available to buy from good food outlets and even themed hotel rooms are available at the hotel where the Pudding Club meets. If you have ever fancied sleeping in a chocolate pudding, there is a room just for you, which includes not only indulgent chocolate bathing accessories but chocolate to eat too. A recipe book is also published which makes for fantastic reading and a fun web site gives recipes, history and news of events. 

Anyone can indulge their love of puddings and all that is required is a booking in advance for a pudding club meal and meeting. A midsummer menu would include the following dishes of cold poached salmon and baby new potatoes, Gooseberry Fool, Summer red Berries and Summer Pudding. For the pure pudding lovers the old favourites are available any time of year. Expect to you will also find Syrup Sponge, Jam and Coconut Pudding or Spotted Dick amongst the pudding parade.

A range of merchandise is available including sumptuous recipe books, novelty teddy bears, aprons, towelling robes and calendars. Gift vouchers are available for dinner for two and a meeting of the pudding club and even a stay in a pudding themed hotel room. This is definitely a most unusual and welcome gift for food lovers everywhere. If you’re coming to stay at Cooks Green Holiday Cottage and have a sweet tooth, be sure to check out The Pudding Club.

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