The last Sunday before Advent means stirring up your sweet treats. Check out our recipes.
This Sunday (20th November) is Stir-up Sunday, the last Sunday before Advent and the traditional preparation date for Christmas puddings. It's also a good day to make your Christmas cake.
If you haven't got the time or inclination to make your own pudding, stay tuned for our taste test in which we'll be pitting shop-bought puds against each other to find the best.
Christmas puddings
If you haven't got a tried and tested (and probably much loved) recipe of your own, don't fret. We've got a couple of excellent recipes for you to try out.
Mary Berry's Christmas pudding
Mary's Christmas pudding recipe calls for candied peel, almonds, and plenty of dried fruit, plus a cheeky splash of rum or brandy.
It keeps for up to three months, and you need to steam it to reheat it on the big day.
To top off the festive cheer, serve with a very generous dollop of brandy butter.
A less traditional Christmas pudding
Despite the twists, there's still plenty of well-known Christmas flavours: figs, dried fruit and lovely mixed spices.
This keeps for up to a month, so it would be best timed if made just before the end of November.
Christmas cakes
As for Christmas cakes, we've got these three beauties. The simple cinnamon cake is probably best made closer to the 25th, although you could definitely get away with a 'practice' round now if you just want an excuse to eat more cake.
Everything about this cake just screams over-the-top Christmas indulgence, and we love it.
Add a layer of snow-white icing and it becomes even more irresistible!
Fig, port and star anise Christmas cake
However, you also get the more exotic flavour of star anise, and the decoration on top of the cake is stunning.
An ideal pick if you're not too keen on icing.
Simple cinnamon Christmas cake
His cinnamon cake is a much lighter option that also takes much less time to prepare than the other two, and only 40 minutes to bake.
It's not wholly traditional, but it at least includes mixed spice, cinnamon and mace to give it a Christmassy flavour.
When will you be making yours? Let us know in the Comments below.
You might also like:
All of our Christmas recipes and features
Traditional Christmas dinner recipes