Pudding
What it really means
In Britain, "pudding" often just means dessert — any dessert. "What's for pudding?" means "What's for dessert?". Confusingly, some savoury dishes (black pudding, Yorkshire pudding) also use the word.
Context, tips & common mistakes
'Pudding' is the general British word for dessert — 'what's for pudding?' means what sweet thing follows dinner, regardless of whether it is cake, fruit or ice cream. 'Dessert' and 'sweet' are also heard (with class and region flavouring the choice, and 'afters' as the cheerful informal option); a restaurant will say 'the pudding menu' and mean the dessert list.
The confusion is that specific puddings ignore the rule: black pudding is blood sausage at breakfast, Yorkshire pudding is savoury batter beside your roast, and steak and kidney pudding is a main course — the word originally meant things boiled or steamed, sweet or not. Decode by context: pudding at the end of a meal is dessert; pudding with a name in front of it could be anything. The great steamed classics (sticky toffee, treacle sponge, spotted dick — yes, really) are worth ordering at least once, ideally with custard.