Stratford-upon-Avon care home stirs up a festive pud

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Nov 26, 2015

Residents at Ambleside care home in Stratford-upon-Avon donned their aprons and had their mixing bowls at the ready for a festive ‘stir-up’ on the traditional day for making Christmas puddings, Stir-up Sunday. 

The care home on Evesham Road used a Christmas pudding recipe created especially for the home by Great British Bake Off finalist Brendan Lynch. Led by the head chef Lisa Morris, residents took it in turns to stir in the ingredients, including mixed peel, festive spices and glace cherries, and then made a secret wish. 

Stir-up Sunday, which takes place on the last Sunday before Advent, is traditionally the day when families and friends gather together to ‘stir-up’ their Christmas pudding and make a wish, leaving plenty of time for the pudding to mature before Christmas Day. 

Dawn Leaver, home manager at Ambleside, said: “We all had a wonderful time adding the ingredients to the mixing bowl and seeing if we could recognise the different spices. Baking has many therapeutic benefits and mixing certain ingredients associated with Christmas can trigger memories and happy feelings from Stir-up Sunday’s of the past.

“For many of the residents this is a lifelong tradition that they remember doing as a child and it’s wonderful that we can continue this important milestone in the lead up to Christmas.  And it’s not too late to make your own Christmas pudding, Brendan Lynch’s recipe can be downloaded at www.careuk.com/stirupsunday.”

Lisa concluded: “We all really enjoyed using Brendan’s special recipe to make our Christmas pudding and we can’t wait to taste it on Christmas Day.”