Bara Brith

Yum.

I feel I should be doing more to plug Welsh food. Delicious Delicious Delicious was recently included in a feature on Cardiff-based bloggers for Wales Online, and I have been feeling a little naughty ever since then about the lack of any sort of Welsh focus on here whatsoever. Apart from those dragon cookies, of course.

Anybody else getting excited by such a huge pile of flour and spices?

I'm not about to start a monthly Welsh spot, or anything like that (it is hard enough keeping up with the pies anyway, quite frankly). I am an Englishman after all, and don't really know the first thing about Welsh food. I've never eaten laver bread (and probably never will), never made Welsh cakes (though I have bought them many times - one word: heaven) and I think cowl and stew are exactly the same thing. If you want to know about real, traditional Welsh cuisine, you would do better to ask someone else.

But still I feel like I should be including it on the blog. So I am left with little choice but to post my recipe for bara brith, or 'speckled bread', which is the only truly Welsh food I ever really make at all, and even that is only sometimes.

You will enjoy my tea cake. You WILL.

I tried to find out some more than what I already knew about this fruited tea cake (which was not very much at all) when I was asked to make one for a friend's wedding cake. Up until that point, I'd held rather a negative view of bara brith, as my only experience of it was at poorly catered buffets, the sort where stale sandwiches are arranged on disposable foil trays and garnished with hard-boiled egg halves, and the cheap paper napkins are coloured navy blue. You always find slices of sometimes buttered, dry, crumbly fruit cake (the 'bara brith', apparently) next to old Welsh cakes at these kind of lunch tables. I'll be frank: I never cared for it. So I knew I had to find a good recipe for the wedding cake I was making. Because let's face it: dry buffet cake doesn't cut the mustard at a wedding.

Like all 'traditional' foodstuffs, there are actually zillions of recipes for bara brith. Some contain eggs, some don't. Some are yeasted, and others use baking powder. Some are lightly fruited (the specks in the speckled bread are raisins), and some are heavy with tea-soused fruits. The only thing that recipes agree on is that the fruit should be soaked over night in tea. After that, anything goes. And of course, each of the recipes will declare itself 'the right way' to make a bara brith.

I was drawn to the recipe below for several reasons. One was the method - I like the way the sugar is added in two parts. This creates crystals in the tea loaf, which add interest to the texture. Another was the lack of yeast. Yeast is terrifying. But most of all, I liked this recipe because it comes from the Williams family of Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire. I have no idea who they are, but I love that kind of provenance.

Me being who I am though, I changed the recipe a little, and am giving you my version. If you want theirs, add less spice, and use weak tea, but for me, the tea flavour should be strong, and so should the spices.

Give this a go. It's so easy, and it's fat-free to boot. Let me know what you think!

Bara Brith

You will need:

350ml boiling water

3 tea bags

350g soft dark brown sugar (I sometimes use half dark muscovado sugar)
350g mixed dried fruit (use whatever you like - I like to add dried cranberries)

300g plain flour

2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 large egg, beaten

1. Put half the sugar, the fruit and tea bags into a large bowl. Pour over the boiling water and leave over night.


2. Next day, pre-heat oven to 180°C. Grease and line a 20cm round cake tin.


3. Remove the tea bags and discard. Mix in the remaining sugar and then all the other ingredients. You should have a fairly wet and aromatic mixture.


4. Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for about one and a half hours, or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean and free of crumbs.


5. Allow to cool, and store in an airtight tin for a day or so before eating. Some people slice thinly and spread with butter, but I prefer a big hunk of this, and always plain.

Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes

Originally posted on the fabulous Ko Rasoi. Enjoy!

This cherry is absolutely necessary.

I'm in a bit of a bad way; these cupcakes have made me question everything I thought I knew about baking and cake. Basically, for me it feels as if the whole world has been turned upside down at the moment.

You see, they are eggless. If you don't bake very much, that might not sound like a big deal, but I promise you it is. It's a big a deal as you can get. I remember learning in Home Economics at school that the lecithin and fat in egg yolks were what gave texture to cakes, and that eggs also acted as a leavening agent, so it never even occurred to me that you could bake without them. I thought they were essential.

Reader: I was wrong.

(An aside: Have I ever told you that I wasn't allowed to take Home Economics at GCSE level in school? Nope. We boys had to do Craft and Design, which I was bitter about for years. I'm over the sexism now though. On reflection neither subject has really shaped my life anyway, and having done CDT at least I know how to use a lathe and make egg cups using a vacuum former. I'm such a manly baker...)

Cherry or no cherry? We're going to need a point of comparison for this...

Back to the eggs: I've heard about this eggless baking lark, and it seems like all the cool kids are doing it. But up until now I've resisted. Some of the recipes call for ingredients that I'd have to buy from ultra pricey health shops (I have a bad habit of spending more money than is reasonable in those places - manuka honey anybody?), or wouldn't use for anything else afterwards (like skimmed milk powder for instance). But then I chanced upon a Depression Era cake recipe on a brilliant little blog I follow, Let Her Bake Cake.

A Comparitive Study of the Relative Beauty of Two Eggless Cupcakes

It has no eggs or butter in it, and yet still looks like one of the best chocolate cakes you could ever make. And even better, all the ingredients are cheap, store cupboard staples that I had in the house anyway. I was all set to become one of the cool kids; it would be just like when I was given my first shell suit.

As a result, I am extending an open invitation to The Cool Kids' Club to all of you, in the hope that you too will try these out. I am not vegan, and I don't avoid eggs generally (which is good, because Mr. Other P adds eggs to everything - curry, pasta, noodles, you name it.), but I am planning on making these again. They are not only the simplest cupcakes I have ever made ( and ridiculously so), but also the cheapest. I'll be honest - warm from the oven, I could detect a slight after taste of bicarbonate of soda, but once the cakes had cooled, it completely vanished. I can't wait to try out some different variations of the recipe and am thinking lemon first and foremost.

Texture.

I have tinkered with the original recipe to make these spiced chocolate cupcakes, since they are for the Queen of the Spice Trail, and also completely changed the method used to make them. Mainly because I was making cupcakes, and not a sheet cake. But also because I like to simplify. It's OK, you can trust me; like I said before, I can operate a lathe.

I don't care if you are vegan, eat eggs, have allergies or don't even like cupcakes. Tell me that this isn't the most perfectly topped cupcake you've ever seen. You can't, can you?

My frosting is not vegan. It is cream cheese. But my friend Lucy used to run a company that made allergy-friendly cakes, so I stole her vegan butter cream recipe for those of you who are anti-lactose. You must decide for yourself which one to use.

I metricated the recipe: love me, love me.

Chocolate Spice Cupcakes

You will need:

225g plain flour
150g caster sugar (or granulated)
35g cocoa powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
75ml vegetable oil
1 tbsp cider vinegar (use whatever type you have)
2 tsp ground allspice
300ml water

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C. Line a cupcake tin with 12 paper liners.
   
2. In a large bowl, mix the dry ingredients gently. You can use a wire whisk.
3. Add everything else, and whisk to mix everything to a smooth, lump free batter. It will be very liquid.
4. Transfer the batter to a jug, and pour into cupcake liners, filling each about 3/4 full.
5. Bake for about 25 minutes, until a cocktail stick inserted into the centre of a cupcake comes out clean.
6. Remove from pan immediately and cool on a wire rack. Then ice with your choice of frosting. That's right - you have a choice:
   

Allspice Cream Cheese Frosting

You will need:

100g cream cheese
30g butter
400g icing sugar, sifted
1 tsp ground allspice

1. This was going to be green cardamom cream cheese frosting, but my pods were all dried up. I was devastated, but adapted the recipe and like it this way anyway. Cream the butter and cream cheese together, and slowly mix in the sugar until you get the consistency you like.
2. Stir in the spice, and use immediately. This is a lovely, thick, rich icing. Enjoy it!

Lucy and Nuria's Vegan Version

You will need:

100g soy margarine
250g icing sugar
1 tsp allspice

1. Cream everything together using a wooden spoon; that's it! (This is such a great icing.)
   

Tunisian Chickpeas

Obviously, I added LOTS more coriander, and so should you. In photography, as in diamonds, less is more, darling, less is more.

Once, a long time ago, I went to Tunisia. It was awful; I hated it.

That may not be the best way into this, but it cannot be helped. I just have to start from where I have to start from and we'll get there eventually.

We had bad weather. The food was horrendous. I mean literally awful, appalling slop. Limp salads, dry cakes. Tacky buffet style dining. But I was on a package holiday, so I expected that. I learned from it too. No more package tours for me.

There was one time, when we took a trip on the train (which was quite the experience, let me tell you) to Tunis, that I thought it would get better. We found this place, I forget the name (trying to forget the whole day actually, we almost got kidnapped. I'm not even lying!), in a little back street, and they gave us the most amazing chickpea stew on a bed of couscous. It was hot with the flavours of harissa, thick with tomato pulp, and you have no idea how much we loved it. I still say we ate badly on the whole though, because even this lovely place went and ruined it by bringing us flan to eat for pudding.

Eaten in the garden, after being staged.

NEVER bring me flan for pudding (I mean the crème caramel-type thing, in case you aren't sure.); it really upsets me. Food with that texture is wrong on so many levels, and I have spent too much of my time on this planet gulping it down politely and trying hard not to be sick. I feel the same way about chawan mushi, but thanks be, they don't eat that in North Africa.

Anyway, I forgot about that stew until today when I made the most amazing, approximated version (meaning not authentic!) of it from the contents of my almost bare cupboards (Mr. P needs to go shopping - you cannot make lunch from chocolate chips and vanilla alone). I don't normally put 'throw togethers' on here (unless you count these), but I'm making this again for sure. It's already helped to ease the painful memories of that foul flan - I followed this with a cherry topped, spiced chocolate cupcake.

I think I might have some more lunch for dinner.

(Disclaimer: I have nothing against Tunisia - I just had a bad experience. I'm going to go back one day. Promise.)

Tunisian Chickpeas

You will need:

1 x 400g tin chickpeas, drained
1 onion
1 tbsp oil
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes (mine had herbs in; add some garlic if yours are plain)
1 tsp harissa
fresh coriander

1. Drain the chickpeas. Chop the onion and fry gently in the oil with the coriander seeds and cumin for about 5 minutes until softened.
2. Add the drained chickpeas, stir, then add the tomatoes and harissa.
3. Cook for 5 more minutes, then stir though lots of chopped coriander and garnish with more.
4. Serve with couscous or rice (if like me, you're all out of the former!).