Two much loved Northampton businesses collaborate to launch pudding pop-up

Two popular Northampton businesses have come together to launch a new venture called The Pudding Hole - a pop-up business serving up five courses of varied desserts.

The Pudding Hole is the brainchild of The Bread and Pullet’s Jennie Bowmaker and The Cake/Pizza Hole’s Sherrilyn Reynolds after they got to know each other during the coronavirus pandemic when both of their businesses had to close.

Sherrilyn told the Chronicle & Echo: “We both love food, share a dark sense of humour so, when we started ordering each other’s food, we clicked.”

Both business owners struggled through the pandemic and then, in Autumn 2021, Jen was diagnosed with breast cancer. Given the stress and complications that came with cancer treatment, Jen felt she could no longer manage her business alone so Bread and Pullet had to close its doors.

Fast forward to Christmas 2022, Sherrilyn and Jen got together and, “after one too many red wines,” The Pudding Hole was born.

Events comprise a five-course dessert menu, which features a good mix of sweet and savoury, hot and cold, and chocolate and fruity dishes.

Diners can expect to feast on popular traditional desserts like spotted dick, bread and butter pudding and treacle tart as well as modern treats like warm cookie, pavlova and panna cotta.

Every five-course event starts and finishes with something savoury - including a cheese board with chutneys, pickles and jams.

“We don’t want to give everyone diabetes,” Sherrilyn joked.

The Pudding Hole is all about sharing, grabbing a spoon and digging in.

Sherrilyn said: “You know when you’re looking at the dessert menu and you can’t decide what to have? Or you’ve eaten a starter and main course and even though you really wanted pudding, you just can’t manage it? This is the solution! You don’t have to choose – you can just eat it all.”

The duo ran their first Pudding Hole event on Valentine’s Day in Long Buckby, which was a huge success. They now want to put on an event every six weeks.

Sherrilyn said: “It was amazing and so much fun. Both of our businesses have such a loyal following so we saw lots of familiar faces.”

Their next event - at V&B Northampton on March 14 - sold out within a week of its launch.

A quarter of that event’s profits will be used to sponsor Sherrilyn’s husband, Lee, who is running a marathon in aid of Menphys - a charity supporting families and children with disabilities and life-limiting illnesses to have equal opportunities and live ordinary lives.

Sherrilyn and Jen use seasonal fruit and vegetables and use local suppliers including Nakasero, Vicky’s Kitchen and Hamm Tun.

Sherrilyn says the cost of living crisis has taken a toll on all local businesses and doing as little as sharing them on social media can go a long way.

She added: “It’s just a nightmare. Businesses have worked so hard to get their products to a certain point and now people don't have the money to support them.”

On working with Jen, Sherrilyn told this newspaper: “She has such a great way with flavours and textures. Whenever you have something of Jen’s, it is never boring.

“She is an imaginative cook and I am so blessed to work with someone like her because she is really talented and a lovely woman.”

The Pudding Hole has upcoming events at The Hoxley in Daventry on April 4 and Saints Coffee in Northampton on May 16.

For more information, follow @thepuddingholenorthampton on Instagram.