Grave fears for British pudding lost in space

A pudding sent into space by a group of schoolchildren has gone missing, according to reports from Derbyshire, England.

Year 4 students from S. Anselm’s School in the market town of Bakewell launched a high-altitude balloon into the atmosphere on Monday morning.

Attached to the balloon was a Bakewell pudding, an iconic Derbyshire dessert, as well as tracking equipment which takes photos, transmits its position and records the temperature.

Later that day, it had reached an altitude of 13,033m and was en route to Lincolnshire, a seaside county about two hours’ drive away.

The photos, posted to the school’s Facebook page, are magnificent:

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But on Tuesday, the pudding stopped giving out signals.

As BBC journalist Heather Burman reports from Derbyshire, the pudd is essentially lost in space.

It’s one of the best British stories we’ve seen so far in 2018 – it might even be better than the yarn about the hedgehog who inflated like a balloon and that butcher whose life was saved by a black pudding.

It prompted some truly hilarious British responses on Twitter:

Of course, the most rational conclusion to draw is that hungry aliens nicked the pastry. 

This very important story also highlighted the dispute over whether the dessert was a pudding or a tart.

Because, let’s be honest, we can’t have an extremely British story without an extremely British argument about baked goods erupting on the sidelines:

As we learned from food writer Elaine Lemm in a piece for The Spruce Eats, there is fierce debate over the difference between a Bakewell tart and a Bakewell pudding.

“I can say that even in Bakewell, the town of origin for the tart and pudding, opinion is divided and no doubt whatever I say, someone will argue it is the other,” she said. 

“One of the easiest ways to differentiate is a Bakewell Pudding is made with puff pastry and the Bakewell Tart, shortcrust.”

In case you’re wondering, the filling is a blend of jam, almond meal and a lemony custard.

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S. Anslem’s director of studies Liz Scott said the students hold out hope the pastry – and the balloon, we guess – will eventually make it back down to earth.

“Last year, we launched a high-altitude balloon in preparation for this experiment and it was found by a couple on a beach near Skegness, who used the contact details on the balloon to let us know where it ended up,” she said.

“So we’re hoping the same thing will happen again and we'll find out where the pudding ends up.”

We’ll bring more updates on the missing dessert as they come to hand.