By all means print this out for your own use, but the text must remain unaltered, complete with the copyright, and may not be reproduced or distributed for profit or for any other purpose without my express permission. Children were allowed to feast on 'mothering cakes' and Simnel cakes. Violets were the emblem of the day. Into Victorian times, young servant girls would be given the day off to visit their mothers with bunches of violets and a small gift. The language suggests the custom had begun to die out in other parts of the country.
Simnel cakes are very rich.
Rather like the English Christmas fruitcake they are packed with raisins and dried currants, and traditionally layered with marzipan inside the cake, though modern Simnel cakes sometimes use the marzipan as decoration on the top. They were also served at Easter and sometimes at Christmas. Special foods are often markers of Holy Days in the Church calendar. The last Tuesday before Lent is Shrove Tuesday, also known as Pancake Tuesday, when eggs, milk and currants are used up before the long Lent fast by making big thick pancakes. In some English villages women hold 'pancake races', which involve running down the main street tossing a pancake in a frying pan, always duly shown on the local TV news.