March 26th - Mothering Sunday UK

Mothering Sunday was also known as 'Refreshment Sunday' or 'Mid-Lent Sunday'. It was often called Refreshment Sunday because the fasting rules for Lent were relaxed, in honour of the Feeding of the Five Thousand, a story in the Christian Bible. No one is absolutely certain exactly how the idea of Mothering Sunday began, but we know that on this day, about four hundred years ago, people who lived in little villages made a point of going not to their local church but to the nearest big church. To what was called the Mother Church. And some would go to the nearest city to worship in the cathedral. For a long time, it has also been a day for giving thanks for all the things our mothers do for us. Years ago, it was common practice for servants and other people working away from home to visit their parents and give their mothers a present of money, a trinklet or something to eat. The most favoured food was - as it still is in some families - the 'simnel cake'.

The Simnel cake is a fruit cake. A flat layer of marzipan (sugar almond paste) is placed on top of and decorated with 11 marzipan balls representing the 12 apostles minus Judas, who betrayed Christ.

How is Mothering Sunday celebrated in England? Mothering Sunday is a time when children pay respect to their Mothers. Children often give their Mothers a gift and a card.
Many churches give the children in the congregation a little bunch of spring flowers during the Mothering Sunday service, to give to their mothers.

Simnel Cake

Cake:
1 1/4 sticks butter or margarine
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3 eggs
3 cups mixed dried fruit
1/2 cup chopped almonds
1/2 cup cherries
1/2 cup mixed peel
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp mixed spice (pumpkin spice)

Almond Paste:
2 cups ground almonds
1 cup icing (confectioners) sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp lemon juice
2 drops almond essence (extract)
1 beaten egg
1. Cream the butter and sugar together.
2. Sieve the flour, baking powder and mixed spice together.
3. Beat the eggs and add, one at a time, with a spoonful of the flour, into the butter and sugar mixture.
4. Add all the other ingredients and fold in carefully.
5. Make the almond paste. Mix almonds, icing sugar and castor sugar together. Add lemon juice, almond essence and enough egg to form a fairly dry paste.
6. Cut the almond paste in two and roll out one half to the size of the 8 in./20 cm diameter cake tin.
7. Put half the cake mixture into the greased tin, then place the almond paste layer on top of that before adding the rest of the cake mixture.
8. Bake in oven at 300 degrees for 2-2 1/2 hours. This is difficult to test with a fork to see if the cake is cooked as the almond paste is sticky when hot. Press the cake with a finger; it should be firm.
9. Allow to cool in the tin for a short while before turning out.
10. When cool, decorate with the remaining almond paste. A traditional way is to put 11 balls around the top edge, to represent the Apostles, minus Judas who betrayed Jesus.