When you picture the perfect Christmas dinner table, after the turkey has been picked clean and the last of the pigs and blankets fought over, what do you see?

Do you see a glorious, flaming brown half-sphere just waiting to be smothered in brandy butter? Or would that be your idea of a Christmas nightmare?

The Christmas pudding is a quintessential part of British culinary history, with roots that date back to medieval times. But the pud as we know it today didn’t truly emerge until the Victorian era, and it’s remained largely unchanged since. 

Some might say it’s a classic case of not needing to mess with perfection. Others, myself included, might just as easily argue that it should have stayed in the past.

For my part, I find Christmas pudding utterly unappetising. My apologies to the traditional pud fans - I’m happy for you, but it’s not for me. There’s simply no need for that much dried fruit and stodge to be anywhere near a dessert.

And I’m not the only one who’s unenthused.

“I don’t see the hype,” says senior writer Amy Beecham. “It’s far too stodgy and alcohol-soaked for me, not to mention it includes the worst fruit ever – sultanas. Give me a trifle, tiramisu or profiteroles any day.”

Fitness editor Miranda Larbi says: “I like the spectacle of seeing it set on fire. I like the brandy butter; I even like small mince pies, which are fairly similar. But I never eat Christmas pudding. It’s one of the most disgusting foods ever invented in the UK. It still feels like the kind of thing they ate in medieval times when they couldn’t get proper fruit.”

There are some Christmas pudding converts out there, however. 

“I used to be the Christmas pudding hater in my family, says senior Strong Women writer Lauren Geall. “While everyone else dug into the stuff on Christmas day, I’d be sat in the corner scoffing down profiteroles or a slice of yule log. And while that’s still the case, I’m partial to a small slice of Christmas pudding to mark the occasion. Combined with some double cream, the mix of fruits and spices makes for a suitably festive conclusion to the meal.”

And, of course, there are those who unreservedly loved it. “This might be controversial,” says designer Natalie Cooper, “but I really like Christmas pudding. I’ll get one each year in my Christmas stocking and keep it in the cupboard to have on a random August afternoon to keep me going. I clearly can’t go a full year without my pud fix.”

If you count yourself among the Christmas pudding haters, we’ve got you covered. Ocado and national treasure Nigella Lawson have teamed up to create a recipe for any of us who “abominate dried fruit in all its seasonal manifestations”. 

Nigella says: “When it comes to Christmas, I am a fervent traditionalist. I adore Christmas food, every bit of it – the turkey with all the trimmings, the mince pies, Christmas pudding, all the rituals of this seasonal feast – but I’m of the opinion that we don’t have to confine ourselves just to following old traditions, but can create new ones of our own.”

Ingredients

 For the cake:

• 150g unsalted butter, cut into 5 slices, plus extra for greasing
• 1 x 100g bar Menier Swiss dark chocolate 70% cocoa, bashed and broken up inside the packet
• 100g soft dark muscovado sugar
• 125g caster sugar
• 1tsp baking powder
• 200g plain flour
• ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 50g Green & Black’s organic cocoa
• ½ tsp fine salt
• 2 large eggs
• 50g soured cream (serve the rest of the tub with the cake, if you like)
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

For the filling and recipe:

• 150g Ocado frozen raspberries
• 2 large egg whites or 2 x 5g sachets Dr Oetker free range egg white powder
• 150g golden syrup
• 125g caster sugar
• ½ tsp lemon juice
• pinch of fine salt

Recipe 

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC/160ºC fan/gas 4. Grease 2 x 20cm sandwich tins (preferably not loose-bottomed) with butter and line the bases with circles of baking paper. If you only have loose-bottomed tins, then cut the baking paper circles slightly bigger than the bases so they go up the sides of the tins just a little.
2. Over low heat, start melting the butter in a heavy-based saucepan of 22-23cm diameter. Put the kettle on. Tip the bashed up chocolate pieces into the pan, and when the butter and chocolate are all but completely melted, pour in 250ml freshly boiled water, followed by both sugars, stirring very gently to get rid of any lumps. When you have a smooth liquid, take the pan off the heat and leave the mixture to cool a little.
3. Meanwhile, measure the baking powder, flour, bicarb, cocoa powder and salt into a bowl. Loosely whisk the eggs, soured cream and vanilla extract together in a measuring jug.
4. Tip the dry ingredients into the saucepan, and whisk slowly and carefully until smooth. Then gradually whisk in your jug of wet ingredients until everything’s incorporated and the batter is dark and glossy.
5. Divide the batter equally between the prepared tins, and bake in the oven for 18-20 mins: the top of the cakes should be set (don’t worry about the cracks) and coming away from the tins at the edges. A cake tester will come out mostly dry but still slightly smudged with chocolate.
6. Leave to cool on a rack for 15 mins or until you can handle the tins without oven gloves. Turn the cakes out, peel off the baking paper and leave until cold.
7. While you wait, tip the frozen raspberries onto a lipped plate in one layer and leave to thaw.
8. You can leave the cold cakes, covered, for a couple of hours, if needed, before icing them. But once the cake is filled and iced, it really is at its best served within 1½ hours or so.
9. Now to the icing, which requires a bowl and pan that you can fashion into a double boiler. Put a very little bit of water into the pan and bring to a simmer. Put the egg whites into a wide-ish heatproof bowl that will fit over your pan (if you’re using the egg white powder, make it up first, according to packet instructions). You want the gentle steam from the water to heat the base of the bowl, but no water should touch it, ever! Add the golden syrup, caster sugar, lemon juice and salt and, using an electric hand-held whisk, beat the mixture vigorously for 5 mins: it starts off rather yellowy and very liquid, but when the 5 mins are up, you will have a firm, thick, voluminous and snowy meringue mixture. Lift the bowl immediately off the saucepan and place it on the cool kitchen surface.
10. Sit one of the sponges, domed side down, on a cake stand or plate – 23cm diameter at most or it will look lost – and spread enough of the icing to give you a layer about 1cm thick. Then top with the thawed raspberries, leaving a pure white ring of icing about 2cm wide all around the edge.
11. Gently sit the other sponge, domed side uppermost, on top. Ice the top and sides, using a couple of spatulas for ease, swirling the top and smoothing the sides as best you can.
12. Adorn with Christmas decorations if you wish, and leave for 30 mins or up to 1½ hours before you slice into it. Serve with the extra soured cream, if you like, and joy in your heart. Store leftovers for 1 day in an airtight container in a cool place.

Images: Getty; Ocado