Our story began with Sandra McLaren, a brilliant confectioner and award-winning dessert designer, who noticed that not one of her four children would eat the Christmas pudding she served. Glancing around the candlelit table, she realised that barely an adult had touched it either!

Already renowned for her many years of designing and making cheesecakes for Harrods, one day Sandra decided to take on the humble Christmas pudding.

After much experimentation, she discovered she could cut out all the stodgy suet – and remove a lot of the dense flour. Instead, she added a very generous dollop of butter, some zesty oranges, lemons, prunes and flaked almonds. She drenched it all in fine French Brandy and Guinness Stout, steamed it for eight hours – then then let the pudding mature to perfection for 6 months.

Having won over family and friends, she took the McLaren’s Christmas pudding further afield. Since 2004, when our story began, Sandra’s pudding has attracted a growing number of Christmas pudding aficionados and convertees.