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The relationship between the United States and Britain is never more “special” than at Christmastime: mince pies and plum pudding, Victorian carolers and Boxing Day sales.

Typically, roast beef was topped with a slice of plum pudding.

But, as one conflicted character in Charmaine Wilkerson’s debut, “Black Cake,” notes, it “was essentially a plum pudding handed down to the Caribbeans by colonizers from a cold country.”

That would be — you guessed it — black cake, a “moist, loamy” confection, “essentially a plum pudding handed down to the Caribbeans by colonizers from a cold country.”

It’s easier to make than a buche de noel, more satisfying than a plum pudding.