Get stuck in on Stir-up Sunday. The tradition your tastebuds have been waiting for…
LIKE MANY OCCASIONS THAT end up being about cake, Stir-up Sunday was never supposed to be about cake. The name comes from an Anglican prayer delivered on the last Sunday before Advent (this year, 21st November) and intended to “stir up the wills” of the congregation to go off and perform good deeds. No one mentioned cake. However, at some point, the congregation’s womenfolk found these words served as a timely reminder to start “stirring up” their Christmas cake, mincemeat and puds so they could exchange flavours for five weeks. So pile the table high with dried fruits, nuts, bottles of rum and brandy, lemon halves, plain flour, cinnamon, eggs, butter, muscovado sugar, candied peel and whatever else your chosen recipe suggests, dust off your biggest mixing bowl and a wooden spoon and get stuck in.
This blog was originally published in November 2013. If you need a recipe for a fruit cake, there’s a really rather good one on page 25 of our November 2021 issue which you can still buy in our online store and have delivered to your door mat. Our December issue, with lots more ideas for preparing for Christmas is in all good shops and supermarkets now.
Buy this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe
