At Burtree House Farm near Darlington, home of the Darling family, Lea Darling makes puddings using the farm’s own free-range eggs, English butter and organic double cream from a neighbour’s herd. There are three Christmas puddings: a traditional one, made with brandy and brown ale, a “deluxe” one, made with rum, barleywine and stout, and a gluten free pudding with brandy. All come in three sizes, 225g (£3), 450g (£6) and 900g (£12) in microwaveable basins, wrapped in muslin. (These are farm gate price, but they can also be sent by mail-order).

Lea also makes rich, un-iced fruit cakes, fat-free tea loaves, such as cherry and sultana and an award-winning range of alternative puddings such as sticky toffee, lemon, chocolate, ginger, and syrup. The Darlings also farm free-range, slow-grown chickens, guinea fowl and KellyBronze turkeys (local orders only). 01325 463521; www.burtreehousefarm.co.uk.


When the legendary cook Joyce Molyneux owned the Carved Angel Restaurant in Dartmouth she made her wonderful, moist fruity-spicy Christmas puddings, based on an Eliza Acton recipe, so famous that she began selling them to customers in earthenware bowls, tied with muslin, later posting them out all around the country.

The Carved Angel changed to The New Angel, under chef John Burton-Race, but the famous Christmas pudding is still produced to the original recipe by a local company, along with two new puddings and the deep, old-fashioned tasting Carved Angel Christmas Cake, encircled with a band of muslin and ribbon, the top decorated simply with a disc of icing, etched with an angel and ringed with candied fruit. Both are being sold this year at Waitrose, or you can order them on-line, from £10 for a small pudding (serves 2-3); £20 for the cake (on-line, it can also be ordered in a blue hat box for £30). It is made in three sizes, from £10 for a small one to feed 2-3 people. 01822 835020; www.thecarvedangel.com.

George Hollywood at Georgie Porgie Puddings in Ottery St Mary, Devon set up his pudding company 13 years ago, at just 18 years old, with the help of the Princes Trust, in a “garage-sized room”. Now he produces 28,000-30,000 puddings each year, but each one is still made by him, personally, to a secret recipe he devised himself and keeps in his head.

The puddings range from an individual one (£3.30), which is a traditional shape, to larger round ones, the biggest being a 2.1kg one, which can feed 15 (£25.20). If you aren’t mad about traditional Christmas pudding he makes alternatives in flavours such as Orange & Cointreau and offers boxes of 12 little “Castle Puddings”, comprising strawberry jam, treacle, and spotted dick (£24). 01404 815561; www.georgieporgiespuddings.co.uk. You can also order through Forman & Field (0208 5252 352; www.formanandfield.com)

Sisi Edmiston’s sumptuous Christmas cakes, made to “granny’s recipe” packed with fruit and nuts and very little flour, and laden with a topping of glazed fruit and nuts, have been a huge draw at farmers’ markets and Christmas Fairs for years. The pity was unless you could make a fair, or order and collect from her, there was no way to get hold of one.

Now, thanks to her three daughters, the wondrously named Pandora, Portia and Scarlett, all that has changed. “Every year from when they were at school I used to get the girls to make something for their godparents, usually elderflower cordial, sloe gin, or something with fruit from the hedgerows. Then one year they decided to make Granny’s cake,” says Sisi.

The baking clearly struck a chord, because now they have joined mum in the annual ritual of soaking fruit in cognac, baking at midnight in a London bakery, maturing the cakes with more cognac and finally decorating them with their chunky fruity, nutty toppings. “We like our cakes to be really rich, the kind that go well with crumbly, slightly tangy Lancashire or Wensleydale cheese”, says Sisi. “

The secret is in sourcing very fresh fruit, which swells up full of cognac when you soak it. We don’t use currants, because they just don’t do that, and when the cake matures they can become bitter and gritty. Instead we double up on apricots and golden sultanas, which is expensive, but makes all the difference”.

The Edmiston sisters began selling online mainly in response to mothers asking for cakes to be sent to their sons and daughters working abroad, and particularly in the armed forces. “It is one of the most precious things to send from home; I’m told there is a lot of nostalgia and crying when the parcel arrives”, says Sisi. At Christmas fairs (but not on-line), you can also buy undecorated cakes to ice yourself. “People do it with the children, turn the cakes into Santa’s Grotto and pretend they are their own,” she says. The classic 6inch square cake (up to 2kg) adorned with fruit and nuts is £55 by mail order. Details of Christmas fairs from the website. 07932 656898; www.thechristmascake.com

Christine Huddleston makes all her cakes and preserves (see below) in her own kitchen in small batches. Her festive menu of goodies includes Christmas puddings with brandy, port and rum, and her famous jewelled Whole Fruit and Nut Cake with Brandy – we are talking about a serious, solid slab of brandy-soaked fruit and nuts here, held together with the barest minimum of cake mixture (just 80g flour and two free-range eggs in a 2kg cake).

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