Advent is traditionally a time of fasting, but preparations for the Christmas feast begin from the last Sunday before the start of Advent: ‘Stir up Sunday’. Named after the first words of the collect, or prayer, set for that day in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, this is also taken as a reminder to cooks to make their Christmas puddings.

This unusual recipe for Rich Christmas Pudding is given in the 1911 Liverpool School of Cookery Recipe Book, with breadcrumbs instead of flour. This was one of the books shown during the Special Collections & Archives visit for the Mr Seel’s Garden Connected Communities AHRC project. An earlier owner of this cookery book in the Children’s Collection (JUV.1401:1.2) seems to have had a small helper in the kitchen keen to draw attention to more pudding recipes.