Cringleford care home stirs up festive puds for the Salvation Army

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Nov 24, 2015

Residents at Cavell Court care home in Cringleford were joined by members of the Cringleford Women’s Institute and the Salvation Army for a festive ‘stir-up’ ahead of the traditional day for making Christmas puddings, Stir-up Sunday. 

The care home on Dragonfly Lane used a Christmas pudding recipe created especially for the home by Great British Bake Off finalist Brendan Lynch. Led by the head chef Wayne Robinson, residents, and members of the Women’s Institute and Salvation Army took it in turns to stir in the ingredients. They created 50 individual Christmas puddings which have been donated to a local homeless shelter run by the Salvation Army. 

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. 

Anita O’Neill, home manager at Cavell Court, 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 residents this is a lifelong tradition they remember doing as a child and we were keen to continue this important milestone in the lead up to Christmas.  It’s not too late to make your own Christmas pudding and Brendan Lynch’s recipe can be downloaded at www.careuk.com/stirupsunday.”

Head chef, Wayne Robinson, 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.”