My Welsh grandmother used to make a wonderful plum pudding and a delicious hard sauce. I have never been able to duplicate them. Any ideas?

You don't state what recipe you use, so it is hard to tell. Do you use shredded suet, or lard? If you substitute vegetable shortening or butter or (HORROR!) margarine, you will not get the correct taste or texture.

Likewise, you need to use carrot with your fruits, and currants (which can be hard to come by), and you need to tie your plum pudding in a bag for steaming, not just use a bowl. You also need some whiskey, brandy, or bourbon, and the pudding needs to age after you cook it. Some people would age it for as long as 3-4 months...

A good hard sauce is easier to make. Depending on the recipe, you can tweak a little here and there to get a taste like you remember.

Without further info, it's hard to say what you might be doing wrong, but hopefully one of these tips can help.

I think that hard sauce was actually a sweet confection type icing that is/was used on plum puddings and Christmas cakes. It was called marzipan and made of almond paste, sugar and egg whites. I also remember it as a child being gorged full of Christmas dinner, Mince pie, fruit cake one also had to make room for Christmas pudding or Christmas just wasn't Christmas we were told, while wearing a goofy paper hat.