British & Irish desserts

British and Irish dessert is the kingdom of the pudding in its older English sense — a category that includes both the boiled or steamed suet sponges (spotted dick, jam roly-poly, treacle pudding) and the chilled set creams (syllabub, posset, fool, queen of puddings).

The supporting cast is no smaller. The classic baked goods include Eccles cake, Bakewell tart, parkin (the Yorkshire ginger cake), shortbread (both Scottish and English), the layered Battenberg, the trifle, the summer pudding of raspberry-soaked bread, and the brandy snap. Christmas brings mince pies and Christmas pudding; spring brings hot cross buns and Simnel cake; autumn brings sticky toffee and figgy pudding.

The pantry is butter-and-cream rich and characteristically marked by treacle, golden syrup, currants, brandy, custard, and the year's soft fruit. Few traditions value the simple custard-with- something-warm-and-sticky pairing more.