I wasn’t sure what stir-up Sunday was until last year when I noticed a display in our Manchester shop with all of the ingredients for it. Stir-up Sunday is always on the last Sunday before advent, and it’s the day people prepare their Christmas Puddings.

Here’s a boozy vegan Christmas Pudding recipe that I tried out last year, nut free to accommodate my partner’s nut allergy too.

INGREDIENTS

• 125g Dairy Free Margarine (and a little bit more for greasing)
• 375g Infinity Foods Organic Dried Figs
• 75ml Rum
• 175g Infinity Foods Organic Raisins
• 175g Infinity Foods Organic Sultanas
• 1 Large Apple (peeled & grated)
• 170g Billington’s Fairtrade Demerara Sugar
• 100g Breadcrumbs
• 100g Dove’s Farm Self-Raising Flour
• 1/2 tbsp all spice (or mix of 1:1 mix of cinnamon and nutmeg, with a pinch of ground cloves)
• Eco-friendly If You Care Parchment Baking Paper
• If You Care 100% Recycled Aluminium Foil

METHODS

• - Cut out a circle of the baking paper and use it to line a greased pudding bowl.
  
  - Grease a large sheet of baking paper then lay it on top of a large sheet of foil, greased side up. Fold a pleat in the middle of each sheet.
  
  - Roughly chop 125 of the figs, and pop them to the side. Put the rest of the figs, margarine and the rum into a food processor, and blend until smooth then scrape into a mixing bowl. Add the chopped figs, all the sultanas, raisins, apple, sugar, breadcrumbs, flour and spice. Stir everything together then spoon the mixture into your little foil pudding basin.
  
  - Cover with the greased paper foil sheet and tie with a bit of string.
  
  - Pop pudding bowl with your pudding parcel in it into a saucepan with the scrunched up bit of the foil at the bottom, to act as a little bridge to stop the pudding touching the bottom.
  
  - Boil the kettle and fill the pan with boiling water to come halfway up the sides of the bowl. Cover and simmer for 3 hours, adding water as needed. Leave to cool.
  
  - Your pudding will keep in a cool dry place until Christmas (or for a year after making).
  
  
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