As part of our celebration of Wild Irish Women (I'm pretty sure there's one or two in my family tree), I'd like to bake something traditional to share at the event.
However, although my ancestors handed down their genes, they forgot to pass on the recipes, so if anyone has any good simple recipes for traditional Irish cakes or biscuits, I'd be most grateful...and if you wanted to come to the talk next Saturday at Stroud Green and Harringay library to taste if I got them right, we'd love to see you.
p.s. If you are a musician reading this who would be willing to come along and play/sing some Irish music in exchange for tea and cakes, please message me.
Tags for Forum Posts: baking
Here's a very simple apple cake, courtesy of my late great aunt. It's a tray bake which would probably work equally well as an apple cake if you baked it a bit longer (or possibly the lack of egg would make it a bit heavy). She used imperial measurements, and this recipe comes from her notebook, but if you want to convert, 4 ounces = roughly 100 grammes.
Cream four ounces of margarine (she lived through the war - I use butter) with four ounces of sugar. Mix in eight ounces of self-raising flour and eight ounces of chopped, peeled cooking apples. Loosen to a thickish batter with (she says) four tablespoonfuls of milk. I used a bit more. Alternatively, she says, you can rub the fat into the flour and then add the rest of the ingredients.
Bake for around 20 minutes at around 200 degrees. It should be mid brown on top.
You could add cinnamon or nuts to this, but it's worth trying the plain unadorned recipe first: it's really good despite being so simple. If you don't use cooking apples, you'd probably want to reduce the sugar a bit, as the sharpness of the fruit keeps it from blandness.
Barmbrack - you definitely need a good barmbrack! Try this one - it's quite similar to the one my mother used to make. http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/570933
Also, any kind of white soda bread with raisins - there are loads of recipes out there but this one looks good - http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1977666/fruit-and-spice-soda-bread. Served with butter and jam slathered on.
To be honest, traditional Irish cakes and buns are basically the same as they are over here - Victoria sponge, madeira cake, but you won't go wrong with a porter cake http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/640852
Really sorry I can't make the event - it sounds great. Hope you all have a fantastic evening.
© 2024 Created by Hugh. Powered by
© Copyright Harringay Online Created by Hugh