National Plum Pudding Day (February 12th)

Quick facts
When is it?	Every February 12th
Tagged as:	Baking Cakes Food & Drink
What's the hashtag?	#NationalPlumPuddingDay
We first published this page on:	Dec 23rd, 2017
We last updated this page:	Jan 15th, 2026

Contents

Though it might come with more than its share of misunderstandings, plum pudding is a delightful English dessert tradition that has earned its own day.

National Plum Pudding Day is an excuse to lean into cozy, old-fashioned food lore, practice a little patience, and celebrate a dessert that’s less “pudding cup” and more “steamed fruit cake with a dramatic entrance.”

How to Celebrate Plum Pudding

Enjoying this day might require a bit of preparation, but it’s totally worth it. Plum pudding rewards planners, curious cooks, and anyone who enjoys a dessert with history baked right in. Try out these ideas for celebrating:

Try Making Plum Pudding at Home

Plum pudding is one of those recipes that feels like a project—in the best possible way. It isn’t difficult so much as it is slow, and that slowness is part of the charm.

Traditionally, the mixture is packed into a pudding basin (or a similar mold), covered, and cooked by steaming for several hours. Boiling the pudding in a cloth is an older method, but steaming has become the more common approach in modern kitchens.

While plum pudding can be made and eaten within a short time, preparing it well in advance is the classic strategy for deeper flavor. Letting it rest for several weeks allows the dried fruit to soften further, the spices to mellow, and the pudding itself to grow darker, richer, and more cohesive.

Many cooks plan their plum puddings about four to six weeks ahead, then occasionally “feed” them with a small splash of spirits to add richness and aroma.

A few practical tips make the at-home version far less intimidating:

Choose the right container. A traditional pudding basin is ideal, but any heat-safe bowl or mold will work if it fits inside a large pot with a lid.
Protect against soggy tops. The pudding needs a tight seal so condensation doesn’t drip down and waterlog the surface. Most recipes rely on layers of parchment and foil tied securely in place.
Mind the water level. Steaming means keeping hot water around the mold for several hours. Making sure the pot doesn’t boil dry—by topping up with hot water—is the main hands-on task.
Test for doneness. Like a cake, a skewer inserted into the center should come out mostly clean. The pudding should feel set and pleasantly firm.

Making plum pudding at home is also a lesson in texture. The goal is dense but tender, studded with fruit, and cleanly sliceable. It should not be fluffy, and it should not pour. This is a dessert that arrives with confidence.

Use Symbolic Recipes

Plum pudding carries a long trail of stories, rituals, and symbolic flourishes. Some recipes are deliberately meaningful, including versions that call for 13 ingredients to represent Jesus and his 12 disciples. This tradition is more folklore than firm rule, but it captures something true about the dessert: plum pudding often plays a ceremonial role, not just a culinary one.

Symbolism can be part of the pleasure without becoming overly solemn. For example:

A “lucky” ingredient. Some families tuck a small token into the batter, traditionally a cleaned coin, to be discovered at the table. The idea is to bring luck to the finder, though modern cooks often skip this step or use safer stand-ins to avoid any choking risk.
A communal stir. One well-known custom invites everyone in the household to take a turn stirring the mixture while making a wish. It transforms a long, slow recipe into a shared ritual and gives the finished pudding a sense of collective ownership.
Seasonal aromatics. Classic spice blends usually include warm baking spices such as nutmeg, cinnamon, and clove, balanced with citrus peel for brightness. These flavors are not just festive; they help the pudding hold its character through hours of steaming and weeks of aging without tasting dull.

At its core, a traditional plum pudding relies on sturdy, sustaining ingredients: molasses or brown sugar, flour, breadcrumbs, butter or suet, spices, and a generous mix of dried or candied fruits. The fat—especially suet in older recipes—is one reason the texture is so rich and long-lasting. It also explains why plum pudding has a reputation for being deeply filling.

For many households, the final flourish comes at the table. A classic choice is hard sauce, a sweet, buttery topping often flavored with rum or brandy. Others prefer custard, cream, or a warm, poured sauce. In the end, the pudding itself is only half the story. The topping is where family traditions and personal tastes tend to speak the loudest.

Enjoy Eating Plum Pudding

Plum pudding is at its best when it’s treated like an event. That doesn’t require a formal dinner party—just a bit of intention. Serve it sliced and warm, paired with something creamy or boozy. The contrast between the dense, dark pudding and a lighter sauce is the whole point.

For many enthusiasts, the most theatrical presentation involves flaming the pudding. Traditionally, the pudding is turned out onto a plate, gently warmed, and then doused with brandy that has been heated and ignited. The flame is brief but memorable, perfuming the air as much as it impresses the table.

If this tradition is part of the plan, it should be handled carefully: keep flames away from anything flammable, use a heat-safe serving dish, and treat it with the same respect as any open fire.

Even without flames, plum pudding naturally invites people to gather. Friends, family members, neighbors, or coworkers can all be part of the moment if the tasting itself becomes the centerpiece. Classic pairings help set the tone:

Brandy butter or rum hard sauce for richness
Custard for a softer, gentler contrast
Whipped cream for a modern, low-effort option
Coffee or tea to balance the sweetness and spice

For a playful nod to tradition, some groups include games like “pass the pud,” where a wrapped pudding—or a small boxed treat—is passed around to music and unwrapped layer by layer. Others simply add seasonal music, trade family stories, and let the dessert do the work.

One of plum pudding’s quiet strengths is that it shines in small portions. The flavors are intense, and a modest slice feels indulgent rather than overwhelming. That makes it an ideal dessert for sharing—even among people who insist they “don’t really like fruitcake.”

Remember Some Famous Plum Pudding Fans

Plum pudding has had plenty of cultural boosters. Victorian-era writers helped cement it as a symbol of celebration and comfort, and their descriptions shaped how people imagined a “proper” festive table.

Charles Dickens is often mentioned in the same breath as Christmas pudding, partly because his stories helped define the warm, communal image of seasonal meals.

The pudding becomes more than food in that context. It’s shorthand for generosity, family, and the idea that something special is worth the wait.

Other writers and observers of the era, including Anthony Trollope and their contemporaries, portrayed the pudding as familiar, expected, and deeply woven into domestic life.

That literary presence matters because plum pudding is not a flashy dessert by nature. It’s brown, dense, and humble-looking until it’s dressed up with sauce or flame. Stories gave it a spotlight, and the tradition stuck.

Remembering famous fans can be as simple as making the dessert part of a themed gathering. Host a cozy reading night, pick a few classic passages about winter meals, or just use the day as an excuse to serve a pudding that feels like it came with its own soundtrack.

National Plum Pudding Day Timeline

1573

First Recorded “Plum Pottage”

An English source records “plum pottage,” a rich meat broth thickened with bread and dried fruits, marking the earliest known ancestor of plum pudding.[1]

17th Century

Invention of the Pudding Cloth

British cooks begin boiling mixtures in linen “pudding cloths,” shifting plum pottage from a loose meat stew into a firm, basin-shaped boiled pudding.[2]

18th Century

Rise of Sweet Plum Pudding

As sugar, dried fruits, and colonial ingredients become more available, meat is reduced, and plum pudding evolves into a predominantly sweet, fruit‑rich dessert.[3]

1805

Plum Pudding as National Symbol in Satire

Cartoonist James Gillray publishes “The Plumb-pudding in danger,” depicting Britannia and Napoleon carving up a plum pudding shaped like the globe, cementing the dish as a symbol of British power.[4]

1830s–1840s

Victorians Fix Pudding to Christmas

During Queen Victoria’s reign, plum pudding becomes firmly established as the traditional finale to Christmas dinner in Britain and across the growing empire.[5]

Late 19th Century

“Stir-Up Sunday” Family Tradition

Anglican churches’ “Stir up, we beseech thee” collect on the last Sunday before Advent becomes linked to preparing and jointly stirring Christmas pudding at home.[6]

1920s

“Empire Pudding” and Mass Production

[7]

History of National Plum Pudding Day

National Plum Pudding Day is dedicated to a mouthwatering treat that, surprisingly enough, contains no plums. The name confusion is historically grounded: in earlier English usage, “plum” could refer broadly to dried fruits such as raisins, currants, and prunes.

So a “plum pudding” was not a pudding flavored with fresh plums, but a pudding generously packed with sweet dried fruit.

To add another layer of misunderstanding, many Americans won’t find it to be what they think of as pudding either. In British tradition, the word “pudding” can describe an impressively wide range of dishes, from savory to sweet, and it often points to a method or format rather than a specific texture.

Plum pudding is best thought of as a **steamed dessert cake**, rich with fruit and spice, meant to be sliced.

Plum pudding is also known as Christmas pudding or figgy pudding. “Figgy pudding” shows up in song and popular culture, though the actual ingredient list varies widely by household.

The essential idea remains the same: a dark, dense mixture of dried fruits, sweeteners, spices, and fat, bound together and cooked slowly by steaming or boiling.

Even though plum pudding is strongly associated with Christmas and the New Year season, National Plum Pudding Day sits outside that traditional window. That off-season timing gives the dessert an interesting second life.

It becomes less about a single cultural moment and more about appreciating a historic dish on its own terms. It’s also a reminder that long-lived recipes don’t have to stay confined to a single season.

The ingredient list for plum pudding reads like a pantry inventory designed for maximum flavor and shelf stability: dried fruits such as raisins and currants, chopped apple, citrus peel, nuts, warming spices like cinnamon and nutmeg, and often a splash of spirits.

Older recipes frequently used suet as the fat, along with breadcrumbs or flour to bind the mixture. The result is a dessert that can be made ahead, stored, and reheated without losing its character.

A particularly enduring tradition involves communal participation: every person in a household simultaneously holding onto the spoon together to stir the batter, often while making a wish.

Beyond the whimsy, this ritual makes practical sense. The mixture is thick and heavy, and stirring it thoroughly matters. It’s one of those moments where the folklore and the cooking instructions line up nicely.

Plum pudding’s story stretches back centuries. Versions of it appear as early as medieval England, when dishes resembling “pottage” or “porridge” were common. What started as a hearty, sometimes savory preparation could include grains, spices, dried fruit, and even meat. Over time, the dish migrated from the beginning of the meal to the end, and from savory to sweet.

In the 14th century, a dish often cited as an ancestor of plum pudding was a thick, spiced porridge-like preparation that could include meat and dried fruit.

By the late 16th century, recipes began to look more like what modern cooks recognize, with breadcrumbs or flour, eggs for binding, dried fruits for sweetness, and beer or spirits for depth.

The dish became richer, darker, and more firmly set, and it gradually turned into the celebratory dessert that later generations would call plum pudding.

By the 18th and 19th centuries, plum pudding became strongly tied to Christmas tables, and the Victorian era helped standardize the version people think of today: a steamed or boiled pudding, densely fruited, often matured for weeks, and served with a flourish.

The practice of making the pudding ahead, letting it “mature,” and then reheating it for serving fits both the cooking method and the social ritual. It also explains why plum pudding is so often described as better after resting. It truly is built for that.

The dessert also has a rebellious chapter. In the mid-1600s, plum pudding became so associated with Christmas that it was caught up in Puritan efforts to discourage festive celebration. Under Puritan influence in England, certain Christmas customs and foods were restricted or banned for a period.

That pushback didn’t erase the tradition, and the pudding returned to popularity afterward, arguably with even more cultural momentum because it symbolized the kind of celebration people wanted back.

National Plum Pudding Day now offers a separate moment to enjoy that long-running tradition. It highlights a dish that has shifted shapes across centuries, crossed oceans, and collected plenty of stories along the way.

Whether served with custard, hard sauce, or a carefully managed flame, plum pudding remains a delicious reminder that some recipes are meant to be shared, talked about, and remembered.

Facts About Plum Pudding

Plum pudding has a long history and many unusual traditions behind it. These facts highlight how the dessert got its name, how it changed over time, and why it became such an important part of holiday celebrations.

Colonial Ingredients Turned Plum Pudding into an “Empire” Dessert

By the late 18th and 19th centuries, plum pudding had become a symbol of Britain’s global reach because so many of its key ingredients came from the empire: raisins and currants from Australia and South Africa, sugar from Caribbean plantations, spices from India and Ceylon, and citrus peel and brandy shipped through imperial trade networks. This dependence on colonial commodities meant that serving a rich Christmas pudding quietly advertised both household prosperity and Britain’s imperial power at the dinner table.
From Meat Broth to Dessert: The Transformation of Plum Pottage

The earliest versions of what became plum pudding were savory dishes known as “plum pottage” or “plum porridge,” recorded as early as 1573 as a thick meat broth bulked out with bread, dried fruit, and spices and served at the start of a festive meal. Over the 17th and 18th centuries, cooks gradually reduced or removed the meat, increased sugar and dried fruits, and shifted the dish from a hearty first course to the sweet, fruit-packed pudding now associated with Christmas.
“Plum” Once Meant Any Luxury Dried Fruit

In early modern English, the word “plum” was used broadly for rich preserved fruits such as raisins and currants rather than specifically for fresh plums, which explains why traditional plum pudding rarely includes actual plums. Food historians note that this older usage also appeared in terms like “plum cake” and even in slang for a windfall of money, reflecting how imported dried fruits were seen as luxurious, high-value ingredients in an era when sugar and spices were expensive.
The Pudding Cloth Revolutionized British Boiled Desserts

A key technological change in the 17th century was the widespread use of a linen “pudding cloth,” which replaced earlier animal intestines and other casings for boiling puddings. This tightly tied cloth allowed plum puddings to be boiled for hours while holding a smooth, rounded shape and an even texture, helping standardize the iconic dome-like form that became visually associated with British Christmas celebrations.
Plum Pudding as a Symbol of British National Character

By the Georgian era, plum pudding had become a culinary shorthand for Britishness itself, often paired with roast beef as a patriotic emblem in contrast to French food stereotypes. Historians note that political writers and commentators used the dish to symbolize English virtues such as robustness and prosperity, turning what began as a practical way to preserve ingredients into a powerful marker of national identity.
The World as Plum Pudding in Georgian Political Satire

In 1805, the caricaturist James Gillray published a famous cartoon often called “The Plumb-pudding in danger,” showing British Prime Minister William Pitt and Napoleon carving up a steaming plum pudding shaped like the globe. The image used the instantly recognizable British pudding to satirize imperial rivalry, suggesting that this domestic dessert had become so emblematic of England that it could stand in for the nation itself on the world stage.
Empire Marketing Turned Christmas Pudding into a Loyalty Campaign

In the 1920s, the British Women’s Patriotic League promoted a standard “Empire Christmas Pudding” recipe designed to showcase ingredients from across the British Empire, from Australian and South African dried fruits to Ceylon cinnamon and Jamaican rum. With royal permission to associate the recipe with King George V, the campaign encouraged households to support imperial trade through their holiday shopping, turning a traditional plum pudding into a soft-power marketing tool for imperial unity.

National Plum Pudding Day FAQs

Why is plum pudding called “plum” pudding if it usually contains no plums?

In older British English, the word “plum” was a general term for dried fruits such as raisins and currants, so “plum pudding” refers to a rich dried‑fruit pudding rather than one made with fresh plums. [1]

How did plum pudding evolve from a savory dish into a sweet Christmas dessert?

Medieval “plum pottage” began as a thick, savory broth of meat, root vegetables, spices, and dried fruit; over the 17th and 18th centuries the meat and stock were gradually dropped, while suet, flour, sugar, and more dried fruit were added, and by the Victorian era it had become the boiled or steamed sweet “Christmas pudding” served at the end of the meal.[2]

Why are coins or charms sometimes associated with plum pudding, and are they still used?

In some traditions, silver coins or tiny trinkets were hidden in the pudding to symbolize luck, wealth, or other fortunes for whoever found them in their slice; today, many writers describe the practice as largely discontinued, and modern food‑safety advice generally discourages placing hard objects in food unless they are food‑safe and diners are clearly warned. [3]

Does all the alcohol in plum pudding burn off when it is cooked or flambéed?

Historical and modern recipes often include brandy or other spirits in the mixture and for flaming, and studies on cooking show that significant amounts of alcohol can remain even after heating, so people who avoid alcohol for health, religious, or age‑related reasons are generally advised to choose non‑alcoholic versions instead of assuming it has all evaporated. [4]

Why was plum pudding once controversial or even banned in England?

During the 17th century, some Puritan authorities objected to plum pudding as a symbol of lavish Christmas feasting and considered it excessively rich and tied to rituals they opposed, so it was discouraged or banned in certain periods before being fully restored to favor after the Puritan regime ended. [5]

What is “Stir-up Sunday,” and how is it connected to plum pudding?

“Stir‑up Sunday” is the traditional name for the last Sunday before Advent in the Church of England; it became the customary day for families to gather and mix their Christmas pudding, with each person taking a turn to stir the batter—often east to west in remembrance of the Magi—while making a wish. [6]