Irish Tea Cake

There was an assumption that my paternal ancestors came from Ireland. No one knows where this information came from and I suppose when you looked at the family's dark hair and fair skin, you didn't really question it.

As a child I learned Irish dancing; we ate lots of potatoes and cabbage, drank a lot of tea and my father was a Socialist. So it came as quite a surprise when, years later I started to uncover the real family history. No trace of Irish anywhere! 

I've found a brief but unexplained encounter with King Charles II and the Holt Family of Aston Hall, but no Irish. So I'm a bit bemused to understand why I feel so at home when I visit the Emerald Isle.

Giant's Causeway, Northern Ireland

But I have strayed a little from the topic of tea and teacake. I hope you will see where I am heading -  soon.

There's not one good reason to visit Ireland, there's many. Wonderful scenery, the greenest green countryside, a torturous history and the very friendly Irish themselves. 

Powis Castle, Ireland

Portballintrae, Northern Ireland

But if you are not able to visit, I have a suggestion. You can have a hint of the country by baking a Barmbrack, (Irish teacake) . This has been a family recipe for a very long time, although I must admit it's a fair time since I have cooked it. (And why my non-Irish family had this recipe is still a total mystery.)

I'm feeling a little homesick (for a country I don't come from) so I've rustled up some dried fruit and lots of cold tea and here is the result.

BARMBRACK

Ingredients

375g dried fruit - I use currants, sultanas, raisins, cranberries and peel
50ml whiskey*
250ml cold tea - I use Irish Breakfast Tea
225g Plain Flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 egg, beaten
100g soft brown sugar
3/4 tsp mixed spice
1 tablespoon of whiskey extra ( optional)

• Soak dried fruit in whiskey and cold tea, overnight.

• Preheat oven to 160/320º. Grease and line a loaf tin (about 750g)

• In a large bowl add sugar, plain flour, baking powder, mixed spice.

• Using a wooden spoon mix beaten egg to the flour mixture. 

• Now add any remaining liquid from the soaked fruit.

• You need to have a reasonably wet looking batter. 

• Now add the fruit and mix until everything is even.

• Spread this into your prepared tin and bake for 30 - 50 minutes. 

• Check with a skewer to see if it is cooked through, leave in the tin to cool slightly, then finish on a rack.

• I added 1 tablespoon of whiskey to the base of the cake, then wrapped in foil for 2 days before slicing and eating. Delicious with a strong cup of tea and shared with friends.

Eat it as it is or slather it with butter, either way it's very Irish.

* In Ireland, whiskey is spelt with an 'e' but in Scotland it is spelt without.

It's Nearly Easter - Simnel Cake

First Christmas, then Valentine's Day and then it's all guns blazing to Easter although I think the traditional chocolate eggs appeared straight after Christmas in Adelaide.

It's the beginning of March and by now you are probably fed up of the range of sugary treats available for Easter. It's hard not to be tempted by so many different shapes and sizes, but if you check the sugar content in them, it may stop you in your tracks. 

Not content with it's push for the chocolate Bilby, Australian Easter chocolate now stretches to a chocolate wombat, koala, ladybug and duck. It seems so utterly pointless to me! Easter is Easter Eggs! So let's just be done with it.

I'm choosing not to eat chocolate,  so I've decided to go with a traditional Easter cake, the Simnel Cake. This is a VERY fruity cake with marzipan, on the top and on the inside. It is a cake that is traditionally eaten in parts of Europe, England and Ireland and keeps well (unless you have friends like mine.)

The top of the cake is decorated with marzipan balls - 11 in total which represents the 12 apostles -  minus Judas! I'm not religious at all, but I do like this cake and marzipan is one of my favourite flavours. And I'm no longer eating chocolate!!!!!!!

What's your favourite Easter treat? I'd love to hear from you.

You can vary the fruit in this cake to suit what you have available as long as the quantities remain the same.

SIMNEL CAKE

INGREDIENTS

You will need to use a cake tin with a removable base approx 20 cms in diameter. Grease and line the base and sides with a double layer of baking paper to avoid the cake over cooking and drying out.

160g plain flour
80g glace cherries
80g almond meal
160g currants
160g sultanas
160g raisins
160g soft brown sugar
80g candid peel
3 large free range eggs
juice and zest of an orange
1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
1½ teaspoons ground mixed spice
160g soft butter
pinch salt
400g Marzipan 
Icing sugar for dusting
1 tablespoon warmed Jam or marmalade 

Place all the fruit and peel into a bowl, pour over the orange juice and set aside for a few hours or overnight if possible. This will allow the fruit to plump up with the juice.

Add sugar and butter to a large bowl and beat together for about 4 minutes until light and creamy. Add beaten eggs a little at a time and beat well between additions until all is incorporated.

In a separate bowl mix together all the dry ingredients; flour, spices, almond meal, salt. Add the dry ingredients to the fruit mixture and mix thoroughly until all is well combined.

Put half the cake mixture into the prepared tin. Using icing sugar, roll out 1/3rd of the marzipan and lay on top of the cake mixture, now place the rest of the cake mixture on top. Smooth the top, leaving a little dip in the centre.

Bake in a preheated oven 150º fan forced/300F/gas 2
for 2 - 2 ½ hours until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Leave to cool in the tin for 15 minutes then turn onto a rack to cool completely.

Once the cake is cold, spread a tablespoon of apricot jam or marmalade on the top of the cake. Make 11 small balls to top the cake and roll out the rest of the marzipan and place this on top of the cake. Place the small balls along the edge of the cake, securing them with remaining jam.

Heat a grill or use a domestic blow torch to lightly brown (burnish) the top of the cake (see photos).