Holidu investigates Britain’s favourite desserts
Apple crumble
As soon December arrives and the festive season begins, the craving for sweet dishes rises, according to Holidu, the search engine for holiday rentals. Taking into consideration over fifty typical British desserts, Holidu has ranked the top ten most loved dishes. The ranking was revealed by analysing both their popularity on Instagram as well as the number of Google searches for each dessert:
1. Apple Crumble
Wearing the crown this year is the apple crumble, with 1,444,720 posts on Instagram (for ‘crumble’ and ‘apple crumble’ combined). The crumble has a history that dates back to Britain during the Second World War and has remained a favourite since then. The dessert is most commonly made up of baked apples (or also sometimes with berries) topped with rolled oats and brown sugar, perfect comfort food for cold and wintery nights.
2. Lemon Drizzle
Light and fluffy on the inside with a kick of zesty goodness, lemon drizzle is an easy dessert for consumers to make at home, with very few ingredients required. The lemon drizzle was searched for 213,100 times on Google in the past year, proving its place in the heart of the nation.
3. Scottish Shortbread
Securing a respectable third place is the classic Scottish shortbread, with 522,606 mentions on Instagram. This is also a common treat that is shared at Christmas.
4. Banoffee Pie
Bananas, cream and toffee combined with a biscuity base, the banoffee pie is a family favourite, originating from the Jevington region of East Sussex. A reported 170,783 others have shown off their variations of the banoffee pie on Instagram.
5. Bread and Butter Pudding
Another British cuisine classic, scoring a strong 94,900 searches on Google, is the bread and butter pudding. The dish is created by layering slices of buttered bread and scattered raisins, with an egg custard mixture poured over the top before it is popped in the oven.
6. Hot Cross Buns
This spiced sweet bun is made up of fruit, currants or raisins and coated in a sticky glazing. The buns are typically eaten on Good Friday in the UK, but can also be popular at Christmas time. Hot cross buns scored 251,765 mentions in posts on Instagram.
7. Trifle
The trifle is a classic dessert which can often be found on dining tables across Britain as part of the pudding selection of the Christmas feast. Made up of three or four layers of fruit and sponge (soaked in sherry or another fortified wine), jelly and custard, the trifle scored 225,406 hashtags on Instagram.
8. Bakewell Tart
The Bakewell tart is an English dessert consisting of a shortcrust pastry shell beneath layers of jam, frangipane, and a topping of flaked almonds. Originating from the Bakewell pudding, the Bakewell tart was created in the 20th century in the town of Bakewell in the Derbyshire Dales. The Bakewell Tart reportedly features in 160,589 Instagram posts.
9. Jaffa Cake
Often finding itself at the heart of a heated debate about whether it should be classed as a biscuit or a cake, whatever you want to call it, the jaffa cake is a firm British favourite. Created by McVitie and Price in 1927, this small circular cake is made up of three layers: a sponge base, orange flavoured jam, and a coating of chocolate. It received 54,200 searches on Google.
10. Sticky Toffee Pudding
Rounding off the ranking is the sticky toffee pudding, with 95,066 posts on Instagram and 49,500 searches on Google. Warm and gooey, this English dessert consists of a very moist sponge cake that is smothered in a toffee sauce and commonly served with a vanilla custard or vanilla ice-cream.
