Mothering Sunday 

Mothering Sunday, the fourth Sunday in Lent, was originally a time when people returned to the church where they were baptised or attended as children. Adults returned to the towns and villages where they grew up. Servants working in large houses were given a holiday on Mothering Sunday. They could use this day to visit their mother with a gift, often simnel cake.
 
People would fast in Lent but on Mothering Sunday ate this special cake. It is fruit cake covered with a layer of marzipan and balls of marzipan baked into the middle. These balls represented the disciples.
 
Why Simnel? The cake is possibly named after Lambert Simnel, the pretender to the throne of England.  More likely the roots lie in the Latin word 'simila' which means 'fine, white flour' used in the recipes to make the cake.