Pudding wars

Ahhh, my sweet tooth.
My sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet tooth.

It has made me - not something I want to do of my own will you understand, but rather because of my tooth, it has made me research puddings over the winter period from Britain's leading retailers. And, to be honest, until last night thought it was all going to go M & S's way. Their treacle sponge, heated for 60 seconds in the microwave is nothing short of spectacular nostalgia. My only problem has been to date how much custard to add, whether to heat the custard first or to let the pudding cool slightly while eating the custard. The sweetness of my tooth has led in the past to some minor mouth scalding incidents.

Naughty tooth

And then, last night, minding my own business in Waitrose not looking for anything in particular - that's a lie, I was looking for a dessert - it finds me. The raspberry jam pudding with custard in one container.

How is this possible?

I was aghast with marvellment. I was giddy with excitement. Just as the daffodils are starting to poke through the ground and spring is just beginning to say hello, and I think Winter 08/9's pudding research is sadly reaching it's natural conclusion. That time of year when - Boo! - the days are short and the nights are long and the drizzle is just about freezing so it can make you phenomenally cold yet still you are denied the beauty of actual snowfall - that time of year when it's OK, maybe even encouraged to walk past the aisle of sticky toffee pudding and grab two packs of two and stuff them in your basket.

That time is drawing to a close.

Oh, well at least the time of spending too much on short sleeve powder blue shirts and drinking Belgian beer with a bit of lemon in is soon to be upon us once more.

Behold though, in winter's last throws, the raspberry jam pudding from Waitrose.

We've put a man on the moon.
We can speak to one another at great distances on something called the 'telephone'
And now this.

Custard and raspberry jam sharing the same pot. Will man's ingenuity never end?