Plum Duff Tearoom takes its name from an old, slightly unfashionable pudding — a boiled or steamed fruit pudding that used to turn up on tables far more often than it does now. We named the tearoom after it deliberately, as a small stake in the ground: this was always going to be a place for the puddings that had quietly gone out of style everywhere else.
The tearoom is run by Susan, who spent years baking for village fetes and WI sales before deciding the recipes deserved somewhere permanent rather than a stall twice a year. Her daughter Kate joined a few years in to handle the front of house and, more recently, the blog — which started as a way of answering the same "how do you make the custard" question for the fortieth time.
A proper pudding should be dense enough to sit with you, not so light it disappears before the custard's finished. We steam rather than bake where tradition calls for it, we don't apologise for suet, and we make custard from eggs and cream rather than a tin of powder — it takes longer and occasionally splits, but it's worth the extra ten minutes at the stove.
Curious what that looks like on a plate? Have a look at our tearoom menu, or read a couple of our recipes on the blog.