Stir Up Sunday Recipes: Cakes, Puddings and Mincemeat with Tropical Fruits (2024)

FAQs

What is the Stir-up Sunday pudding? ›

Traditionally, families gather together in the kitchen of their homes to mix and steam Christmas pudding on Stir-up Sunday. Parents teach their children how to mix ingredients for the pudding. Everyone takes a turn to stir the pudding mix, for each person involved is able to make a special wish for the year ahead.

The last Sunday before Advent is 'Stir-up Sunday', the day when traditionally families gather together to prepare the Christmas pudding.

Traditionally, the Christmas pudding is made on Stir-up Sunday – in its modern form as a dried fruit-based dessert, it would have been wrapped in a cloth and boiled, but in earlier times, it would have contained meat and been eaten at the start of the meal or alongside the meat.

Christmas cakes to be kept in a tin can be made up to 3 months in advance depending on the recipe you use, OR you can make it many more months ahead, freeze it and defrost it when you are ready to 'feed' it or ice it.

Puddings made for dessert can be boiled and steamed puddings, baked puddings, bread puddings, batter puddings, milk puddings or even jellies. In some Commonwealth countries these puddings are known as custards (or curds) if they are egg-thickened, as blancmange if starch-thickened, and as jelly if gelatin-based.

Stir it up Sunday has always been the last Sunday before Advent and takes its name from the book of common prayer. It was when families came together to mix and steam their puddings. Traditionally everyone took a turn at stirring and would make a wish.

Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

stir somethingup

to try to cause arguments or problems to stir up a debate Whenever he's around, he always manages to stir up trouble. We have enough problems without you trying to stir things up. to make something move around in water or air The wind stirred up a lot of dust.

Is it too late to make a Christmas pudding? No! It's not too late. Traditional Christmas puddings are made at least 5 weeks before Christmas to develop the rich, deep flavours, and they take hours and hours of soaking and boiling to prepare.

Christmas Pudding (also known as plum pudding or figgy pudding) is a dish as famous as it is misunderstood. In America, Christmas Pudding (also known as plum pudding or figgy pudding) is a dish as famous as it is misunderstood.

What is the oldest Christmas pudding? ›

The tinned pudding is believed to be one of the oldest in the world. A 120-year-old Christmas pudding given to Royal Navy sailors fighting in the Boer War has gone on display.

It was customary to hide a number of small trinkets in the mixture, a bit like the twelfth night cake. These charms often included a silver coin which signified wealth, and a ring to represent a future marriage. Woe betide the guest who stumbled across a thimble in their serving…

You can use rum, brandy or whisky for spice, or if you like citrus flavours, try an orange liqueur. Cherry brandy and amaretto will also work well if you prefer these.

Like most rich fruit cakes, it benefits from a maturing period and being fed with some extra alcohol, though in the book it is suggested that the keeping time is 6 weeks and generally we suggest if keeping the cake for longer than this then the cake should be frozen as it will keep for a year.

Sometimes referred to as plum pudding or Christmas pudding – we'll get to that later – figgy pudding is a type of British pudding, which is a steamed, cake-like dessert as opposed to the spoonable, thick custard that might come to mind when Americans hear the word “pudding.” Richly spiced and studded with dried fruits ...

Religious significance

It is believed that a Christmas pudding must contain thirteen ingredients. These ingredients each represent Jesus and each of his twelve disciples. Traditionally, brandy is poured over the Christmas pudding and set aflame before serving. The flames are believed to represent Christ's passion.

It's made with alcohol and dried fruit and is a traditional English dessert. It's more like a cake than what Americans think of as a soft, custard-like pudding. Figgy pudding is also known as Christmas pudding or plum pudding.

It was common practice to include small silver coins in the pudding mixture, which could be kept by the person whose serving included them. The usual choice was a silver threepence or a sixpence.