PURPLE PUDDING RAISES HUNDREDS FOR NORFOLK BEREAVEMENT CHARITY

Diners at a Norwich restaurant have helped raise hundreds of pounds for a children’s bereavement charity, after they munched their way through over 200 portions of a special purple cheesecake.

Chefs at The Last Wine Bar created the special pudding to support the Purple Picnic fundraising campaign by Norfolk charity Nelson’s Journey, with the restaurant pledging £1 for every portion sold during the month leading up to the charity event.

The special edition of the Last’s iconic cheesecake – which has been on the menu since the bar opened in 1990 – turned purple thanks to an abundance of black cherries, giving the pudding a suitably summer taste as well as a deep purple hue.

235 portions of the pudding were sold during the campaign, and Last Wine Bar partner Mark Loveday presented a cheque for £235 to Nelson’s Journey community funding & marketing officer Sarah Dodge.

“We wanted to create a dish to support this great initiative, and what better than our signature cheesecake, which is a dish which has been on the menu at The Last for most of our 29 year history?” said Mr Loveday, one of four investors who stepped in to buy The Last when founder James Sawrey-Cookson retired earlier this year.

“We are delighted to have supported the campaign, and our customers have enjoyed tucking into their purple pudding, in the knowledge that we have made a donation to the charity on their behalf each time they do.”

Nelson’s Journey’s Purple Picnic took place in July, with schools, work colleagues, friends and families holding Purple Picnics, fundraising to support Norfolk’s bereaved children and young people.  In the three years the Purple Picnic has been running, it has raised over £34,000 for the charity.