The Empire Christmas Pudding

http://www.retrovert.co.uk/blog/the-proof-is-in-the-christmas-pudding

Due to the fact that there was no uni over the christmas holidays I had quite some time to do things I usally can't do because of other responsibilities. I spend a whole afternoon lying on the couch, watching random shows on tv. Suddenly one of those boring programmes caught my attention. There was a documentation on Queen Victoria and how she introduced christmas to Great Britain and the Empire. As a result of her marriage to the German-born Prince Albert she learnt a lot about German christmas traditions like the Christmas tree and other decorations as well as Christmas Eve. At the beginning of the 19th century christmas was hardly celebrated but Victoria's new passion for this special event served as a basis for other people's interest in christmas traditions and their meaning.

Having seen this documentation I was eager to find more information on the topic and googled random terms which had something to do with christmas in Great Britain and the Empire. In searching for some British christmas recipes I found this Empire Christmas Pudding Recipe which sounded quite good. However, it is not just a usual recipe, this Christmas Pudding rather consists of ingrediets from several countries who once belonged to the British Empire.

Apparently, the idea of the Empire Christmas Pudding goes back to the 1920s and "aimed to promote using ingredients from countries throughout the British Empire. The Empire Marketing Board campaigned up until the war to promote the pudding and other recipes. There was even a propaganda film about a boy who, after seeing the pudding in a shop window, has a dream about visiting all the empire countries to find the ingredients" (http://www.retrovert.co.uk/blog/the-proof-is-in-the-christmas-pudding).

Unfortunately I haven't had time yet to try the recipe, let alone travel to all those countries to buy the ingrediets, but I am sure next christmas is coming sooner than you think and until then there is still some time left to get some plane tickets to the several Empire countries :)

https://hellofreshcouk.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/christmas-pudding.jpg