Stir up Sunday

This Sunday , the last before Advent is  known as Stir up Sunday and is traditionally the day to make the Christmas pudding.The name comes from the collect for day in the Common Book of Prayer -

Stir up, O Lord, the wills of your faithful people, that they bringing forth the fruit of good works, may by you be richly rewarded: through Jesus Christ Our Lord. 

Amen

I did a bit of reading and found out that:

•  your pudding should be stirred from east to west to remember the journey taken by the wise men 
•  should  have 13 ingredients to remember Christ and the disciples.

And , of course, it  should contain a sixpence bringing good luck to the finder!  My grandmother always put a sixpence in her's, I think nowadays it's a fifty pence piece!

I was surprised to see how many newspapers and food blogs, including my favourite one were running articles with plenty of pudding and cake recipes in time for this weekend. It seems that this tradition is still popular. We make a home made pudding in our family - my sister has made it this year but I thought I would put a non traditional one in the freezer for a another occasion. This weekend I will make my Christmas cake , the fruit is ready soaking and today I made homemade mincemeat.

Good Friday Bread Making and Construction.

I enjoy making bread at Easter time.

This year I am using 'Bread' by Liz Herbert for all my Easter bread recipes. My husband gave it to me for Christmas. It is a Women's Institute publication and  is proving to be a very  practical and usable cook book. All the recipes have worked out well so far, I have just made Hot Cross Buns and plan to do Chocolate Brioche for Sunday morning breakfast.

The children have just finished making our Easter garden. This is a regular Good Friday activity for us. I think that it must be an English tradition as it is new to most of my American and New Zealand friends. I remember making miniature gardens in seed trays as a child, but my family , under supervision from their father, construct a small replica garden outside. Wielding saws and digging tools has more appeal to the boys than  dainty, crafty mini gardens!

Angel Wing Cakes

I like to bake on Sunday afternoon and was inspired to make Angel Wing cakes yesterday in honour of Lady Day. Actually, they are Butterfly cakes with the wings turned up right to look more like angel wings!