Mother Superior had decided to put the kitchens to work once again for Easter making spiced and fruity tea-cakes to sell on Good Friday, in aid of the convent roof restoration fund.
500 were made and a small group of sisters volunteered to take them in the old van to the local farmer's market some 5 miles away.
Early on a beautiful Good Friday morning the little cakes were loaded into the van, and the four sisters headed off. But they had gone barely half a mile before the engine spluttered and the van slowed to a halt, exactly as it had the year before. The last time they had got it started by pushing, but despite three of them pushing for perhaps a quarter of a mile the van still refused to start and the battery was flat, so there was nothing for it but to carry the trays of cakes to market, as there was no time to call out a mechanic.
As best they could, carrying the trays on their heads or in their arms, the heavily laden sisters finally reached the market, tired, puffing and sweating heavily in the warm spring sunshine under their thick black habit and wimple. Needless to say, they were not in a good mood.
"What's that over there?", asked a local farmer, as the sisters set up their stall.
"Same as last year," replied another farmer. "Hot, cross nuns."
(Submitted by Sally Fawth of Little Torrington, Devon)
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