Tea Brack

Recently, I became obsessed with tea brack. I got one of those catalogues for King Arthur Flour in Vermont (affectionately known as King Bisquit by me) and on the back pages was a recipe for tea brack. It seemed like a great fit for my baking box. I think that was the spark. So I looked the cake up on the Internet. Big mistake.

There really is such a thing as too much information. In the olden days, like ten years ago, I would have grabbed a cookbook, found a recipe, and made the cake/bread.  But noooooo.  Now there are a zillion recipes.  Go ahead, Google it and check out the photos.   

Now with something like chocolate cake, there a zillion recipes, but they look like chocolate cake. Tea brack was all over the place. Maybe it was because it started out as a bread, but moved over to a more cake-like incarnation.  Who knows?  Well, it turns out I know quite a bit.

Originally it was a bairín breac.  "Bairín" meaning loaf and "breac" meaning speckled, so bairín breac is a speckled loaf, a raisin bread.

"Barm" pronounced like "barn"  is the yeast filtered out of beer toward the end of production. It was a cheap source for leavening bread. So it is often called "barmbrack."

Because it sounds like "barn," the English often called the bread "barnbrack."

But some think "barm" is actually derived from the old English word "beorma" meaning  yeasty.  There is also a word "aran" meaning bread.  Aran Breac would be another way of saying yeasty bread.

And since it is Irish and there are a lot of freckles in Ireland, it is also called Freckle bread.

Most recipes require the fruit, usually raisins and sultana, to be soaked in a strong tea overnight, so some people call it Irish Tea Bread, or tea brack.  Not to mention it is often served with tea in the afternoon. 

 If you want to be chummy, just call it brack. 

The brack is a tradition in Ireland for Halloween.  Much like a King's Cake in New Orleans with a baby baked in, the Halloween brack has all sorts of items tucked in to predict one's future. These item include:

A pea: sadly no marriage for you that year.
A stick: if married you will be unhappy, if not you will have a contentious year.
A rag: you will have bad luck or be poor, which might be seen as the same thing.
A coin: the opposite of the rag, so money and good fortune.
A ring: you are headed to the alter.
A medallion of the Virgin Mary: you are headed to the alter with Jesus.

 
Fortunatly, it is not Halloween.

Yeast was a popular raising agent in many cakes.  The 19th century saw a rise in the popularity of various baking powders that aided in the leavening of cakes. In 1856, Eben Norton Horsford began studying the chemical compositions for a baking powder.  He was a founder of the Rumford Chemical Works, named for  Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, who endowed the professorship that paid for Horsford's early work. In 1869, his rising mixture was manufactured and commercial baking powder was born.

Really, I just wanted a tea cake!!

First I made a yeasted loaf.  It didn't rise much, it wasn't very sweet, and it was dry.  I sliced some of it and looked like someone stepped on my biscotti.  So I sliced it all, let it dry out and made bread pudding -- Irish Barmbrack Tea Bead Pudding.  It was A-OK.

But still, no tea cake.

I looked at recipe after recipe.  After the lackluster yeasty brack, I was skeptical. So I devised my own recipe. In the end, I added milk, too much milk, and the cake was a touch soggy in the middle.

However, one is supposed to toast the brack and slather it with butter.  So my slightly soggy tea brack dried out in the toaster.  Covered with butter, it really didn't matter. It was a tasty little treat.  One I will probably never make again!  Which is a shame since I know most everything one could possibly know about this cake, except how to make a good one!

Here is the recipe:

FIND YOUR OWN DAMN RECIPE!

OK, fine.  The simplest recipe I came across was one on Nigella Lawson's community board.  That means it's not Nigella's recipe, just one posted on her site.  It would also seem that Nigella's site translates recipes from grams to ounces quite literally, which is kinda funny!

Tea Brack

13.24 oz golden raisins 
8.83 oz soft light brown sugar 
11 fl oz tea (strong, hot)
butter (for greasing) 
10.59 oz self-raising flour 
1 egg (beaten)

1. Put golden raisins, sugar and tea into a large bowl, stir well then cover and leave to steep for at least 8 hours.
2. Grease a 1kg/2lb loaf tin and line the bottom with greaseproof paper.
3. Stir the flour and egg into the fruit mixture, mix thoroughly, pour into the loaf tin and level surface.
4. Bake in heated oven at 150°C/300°F/Gas 2 for 1h1/2 to 1h3/4 until well risen and firm to touch.
5. Leave to cool in tin for about 10 mins, then turn onto wire rack.

Here's hoping you don't find rags in your bread.

Carolina Wild Fruitcake

We have been stuck in that holiday swamp! 

As you know, we are big proponents of the fruitcake.  Now every year, we think about doing our fruitcake post in September or October giving everyone a fair chance at actually making a fruitcake while giving it time to mellow.  But we never do.

This year, we have been reading on the Internet about an Australian fruitcake made with a scant three ingredients. The Internet has also given us alien autopsies and a chubacabra or two, so we were skeptical.

One day while exploring various drawers and shelves in and around the kitchen, we found a box of raisins that seemed to be full.  Upon opening it was clear this box had been the resting place of countless bags of dregs from the baking world.  The were about two tablespoons of currents, half a cup of shriveled sultanas, mealy raisins, and something else that at one time had been a dried fruit.  Not wanting to toss out perfectly good, if less than perfect dried fruit, an experiment was in order. 

Australian 3 Ingredient Fruitcake

1 kilogram dried fruit
2 cups juice
2 cups self-raising flour

Armed with my Australian recipe (above), we set out to make the three ingredient fruitcake.  Much to my wondering eyes...the cake was pretty and good!  Not to mention, way easy...easier than any other fruitcake ever made.

So we stocked up on really nice fruit and set off to make the recipe our own. 

Now we just love Carolina Wild Muscadine Juice.  It seemed like a natural.  Since there is only 12 ounces of juice we made up the additional four ounces with rum.  Two pounds of fruit is a bit less than the kilo in the Aussie recipe.  We used a mix of raisins and fruitcake mix. We also used some extra rum to doctor the cakes while warm.  After it cooled completely, we removed the paper, wrapped it in rum-laced cheesecloth and cling film.  The recipe makes one large cake like Lucinda's Wood Baking Box, or a 9-inch springform pan, or two loaf pans, or several smaller loaves for gifting.  (Remember, with less volume, you need to decrease the baking time.) Here is the recipe for our ...

Carolina Wild Fruitcake

1 pound mixed raisins
1 pound glace peel
1 bottle Carolina Wild
4 ounces white rum
2 cups self-rising flour
Extra rum for "doctoring"  (optional)

Soak the raisins and peel in the Carolina Wild and rum overnight.

Pre-heat oven to 300F.

Line 2 loaf pans with parchment or brown paper.  Spray with oil. Set on a baking tray.

Mix the flour into the juice and fruit.

Spoon into prepared baking pans and bake for about 90 minutes.

Remove from oven and brush with additional rum while warm.

 But wait...there is more. 

My goddaughter has been having an awful time with gluten.  Even rice flours have been giving her fits, so we have been experimenting with sweet potato flour.  It is quite dense and often overpowers baking, but it seemed a fine match for fruitcake.  For our gluten free cake, we kept with the lighter color scheme -- yes, baked goods can have a color scheme!  We used sultanas and a mix of lemon, orange and citron for the fruit.  We needed to leaven the flour so we used our own homemade baking powder (cream of tarter and baking soda) but you can buy gluten-free baking powder.  As for "doctoring" the cake, one tends to forget that many spirits, like bourbon are make from grainy products.  We did doctor this with some lemoncello made with a potato vodka.

Gluten-Free Sweet Potato Fruitcake

1 pound sultanas or golden raisins
1 pound mixed citrus peel
2 cups apple juice
scant 2 cups sweet potato flour
2 teaspoons gluten-free baking powder

Soak the raisins and peel in juice overnight.

Pre-heat oven to 300F.

Line 2 loaf pans with parchment or brown paper.  Spray with oil. Set on a baking tray.

Mix the flour and baking powder into the juice and fruit.

Spoon into prepared baking pans and bake for about 90 minutes.

Soak the raisins and peel in the Carolina Wild and rum overnight.

Pre-heat oven to 300F.

Line 2 loaf pans with parchment or brown paper.  Spray with oil. Set on a baking tray.

Mix the flour into the juice and fruit.

Spoon into prepared baking pans and bake for about 90 minutes.

Remove from oven and brush with additional juice or acceptable spirit while warm.

There is still time to make one and have warm fruitcake for Christmas.

 Even the fruitcake haters loved these loaves. 

 And... we hear that chubacabras are fond of them, too.

Fruitcake Recipe

 Recently I wrote about dragging out the Christmas fruitcake and how good it was even after several months.  People began to ask for the recipe.  So I decided to write it out with all the cooking info and then I failed to save the document.  Then every day I thought I would replicate it and every day I failed to post because I was so sure I was going to post the fruitcake recipe.  

Now it is April 15 -- and yes, as it has so often this year, it is SNOWING here in West Virginia.  I am not in the garden, so I finally got the info together.  

You will find a very long set of cooking cliff notes.  Since fruitcake can be daunting and time consuming, we wanted to give you a narrative of exactly what you would be going through.  It is not something one just jumps up from the couch and says, "Let's make some fruitcake."   After the tedious notes, you will be prepared for the pared down recipe, which should be easy to follow.

Fruitcake Cliff Notes:

First is “garbage in; garbage out.”  Use really good fruit.  We buy a lot of our candied peel from King Arthur.  They also have a “fruitcake mix” but it includes dates and we don’t do dates.  We do not do nuts, which is why this is a FRUITcake.  We like a mix of raisins.  Regular raisin, sultanas, currants, some companies have “mixed raisins” which work nicely.

Now, you must look at baking a fruitcake the same way you look at barbecue: “Low and Slow.”  If your oven is set above 300 degrees for a fruitcake, you are cooking it way too hot and it will be dry.  This fruitcake cooks at 250 degrees for 3 ½ hours.

We have a soft spot for quatre épices.  There are many slightly different blends but it is basically a mix of ground white pepper, nutmeg, ginger and cloves. Some recipes use cinnamon in place of ginger.  We keep of large jar of cinq épices.  Equal measures of ground spice including white pepper, nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon, and a half-measure of cloves, as they can be overwhelming.  So 2 tablespoon each of ground white pepper, ground nutmeg, ground ginger, ground cinnamon and 1 tablespoon of ground cloves.   Whenever we see a tedious recipe that calls for a teaspoon of cinnamon and a teaspoon of nutmeg or ¼ teaspoon of ginger and ½ cinnamon and 1/8 teaspoon of allspice we just add it up and add in our spice mix.  DO THIS it is a great idea.

OK, lets make fruitcake. 

You want to soak your fruit in a nice alcohol.  Soak it in something you drink – we are partial to Jack Daniel’s, but rum works.  The late, great Edna Lewis used a little red wine.  Soak the fruit overnight on the counter.  If something comes up and you can’t proceed, put the fruit in the refrigerator and let it set for two days or a week, don’t sweat it.

You need to spend time lining your pan.  For the sake of simplicity, we are proceeding with the idea that you are baking the fruitcake in an 11 X 4 tube pan.  (We almost never bake it in this type of pan.  We usually make smaller sizes to give away.  A smaller pan means less oven time, so make adjustments.  You will end up with about 12 cups of fruitcake batter.  Four loaf pans will cook in about 2 hours and 15 minutes) Since the cooking time runs over 2 hours, the cake needs to be protected.  We line all our pans with brown paper, though parchment will work, too.  A light coating of butter or PAM will help hold the paper in place and let the cake release from the paper. After the first 90 minutes of baking, you will want to open the oven and use an extra piece of brown paper to lie across the top of the pan to further protect the cake.  If you are using a thin-walled pan, like an aluminum angle food cake pan, you will want to add an additional layer of paper to the outside of the pan.  (See below.) Personally, we think lining the pans is the hardest part of fruitcakes. 

 Now it is basically cake making.  Add the dry ingredients to a large bowl and give it a quick whisk to incorporate the spice, salt, baking powder and flour.   Cream the butter and brown sugar; add the egg yolks, a little at a time, and finally the syrup.  Start incorporating the flour mixture a little at a time.  When all the flour is added you are going to end up with more of a cookie dough texture than a traditional batter.  At this point, you will need to proceed by hand, as the mixture is too thick and too bulky to remain in the mixer.   You will also need to whip the egg whites, so unless you have two bowls, you will need the mixer.   Add the macerated fruits with their liquid to the batter and mix well.  Finally, fold in the egg whites.  The cookie-like dough will now be a thick batter.  Add carefully to your lined pan and bake.

Once the cake is done, remove it from the oven and let it cool in the pan. When it is cool, you will want to carefully remove the paper.  Now you will need to “doctor” the cake.  You will need your alcohol of choice, cheesecloth, cling film, and aluminum foil.   In a small bowl, add about ½ cup of alcohol and the cheesecloth.  Soak the cheesecloth, then wrap the cooled cake in the soaked cloth.  Wrap the cake and cheesecloth in the cling film; finally wrap the cake tightly in foil.  Every couple of weeks, you will want to unwrap the cake and re-soak the cheesecloth.  Some people swear it last for years!

Fruitcake

4 cups candied peel
3 cups of mixed raisins and sultanas
1 cup bourbon or rum + extra for soaking
3 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons Lucinda’s cinq épices

2 1/2 unsalted butter, room temperature + extra to butter pans

2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup sorghum syrup (or dark karo, or molasses, or honey)

5 large room-temperature eggs, separated

brown paper, parchment, cheesecloth, cling film, foil

1. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees.

2. In a large bowl, mix the peel, raisins, and sultanas with the bourbon and let macerate for at least 8 hours or overnight.

3. Line your pans with buttered brown paper or parchment.   You will have about 12 cups of fruitcake.  A large 10 X 4-inch tube pan will make one cake. The smaller the pan, the faster they cook.  (If using several small, individual loaves, cover after 1 hour, check after 2 ½ hours of baking.)

4. Into a large bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, salt, and spices.

5. In a stand mixer, cream the butter with the brown sugar until light and fluffy. Separate the eggs, reserving the egg whites.   Lightly beat the 5 yolks and add to the mixture, beat until incorporated.   Add the sorghum and beat until incorporated.  Add the flour, a little at a time, beating well after each addition.   (At this point, the mixture will be more cookie dough than cake batter. You will probably have to remove the mixing bowl and continue on by hand.)  Stir in the fruit mixture with the all the macerating alcohol and combine well.

6. In a large bowl with a hand mixer, beat the egg whites until they hold stiff peaks. Fold the whites gently but thoroughly into the batter.  Spoon the batter carefully
into the prepared pan(s).

7. Bake the fruitcake on the middle of the oven for about 1 1/2 hours.  Remove and cover it with a piece of brown paper or parchment but NO aluminum foil. Continue baking for about 2 hours.

8. Remove from the oven, and place the cake in the pan on a rack to cool.  When completely cool, remove the cake from the pan and carefully remove the paper.   Cut a square of parchment, large enough to wrap the cake.  Place the cheesecloth in a small bowl and add enough bourbon to soak the cheesecloth.  You want it to be damp, not dripping.  Wrap the cake in the damp cheesecloth.  Wrap the cake again in cling film.  Wrap it the final time in aluminum foil.  Let it sit for at least two week.  Every two weeks you will want to unwrap the cake, re-soak the cheesecloth and re-wrap the cake.  (If you have a cake tin with a tight fitting lid, you can simply wrap the cake in the damp cheesecloth and keep it in the tin, feeding it every couple of weeks.)

Now you are ready for next Christmas.  Send pictures!

The Cake That Keeps On Giving

I am not a someone who craves sweets.  I am a salty eater.  Given the choice for dessert, I choose cheese.  But every now and them I do want something sweet. 

Last night I was searching for something, a lone cookie, some candy, something and then I ran across the fruitcake.  As always, I baked fruitcakes for Christmas.  I am a firm defender of fruitcakes.  They respond like that old computer joke about "garbage in, garbage out."  Same with a fruitcake.  Unless you go the extra mile to get beautiful dried fruit, plump raisins, and a nice rum; unless you are will to bake it low and slow for several hours, you get garbage out.  But put in the effort and months later you still have a lovely sweet snack.

I felt a bit like Lord Carnarvon unwrapping a mummy.  There were three layers of aluminium foil.   Four or five wrappings of cling film.  Finally rum soaked cheesecloth that needed another soaking.  Finally, the fruitcake.  I sliced it, inspected it, and broke off a small corner for just a careful taste.  (I have heard those stories of people finding fruitcakes 10 or 12 years later and eating them, but one always wants to check.)

It was delicious, firm, moist and studded with fruit. I poured a cup of coffee and had a late-night sweet.  Another reason one should make Christmas fruitcake. 

Chocolate Citrus Fruitcake

Why didn't someone tell me that Christmastimes a' comin'?

I recently made some fruitcakes. Now I love fruitcakes, but in America it is often hard to find good candied peel and if you use that dry chopped peel that is standing in some sugar water, well, your fruitcake will most definitely suck.

My other problem with fruitcake -- it seldom has chocolate in it, and frankly, chocolate is a favorite for cakes. This year I decided to remedy this. I developed a fruitcake with the requisite candied peel, but I also added chocolate. I used chips, because I had a couple of bags, but next time I think I will use chunked chocolate.



I macerated the fruit in one of my favorite liqueurs, Jeremiah Weed. Jeremiah Weed is a bourbon liqueur so you get both bourbon and a sweetness which is wonderful. Now if you are not a drinker, you can skip the macerating.

Chocolate Citrus Fruitcake

3/4 cup unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
3 large eggs
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flower
3/4 cup room temperature milk
3 cups mixed citrus peel
1 cup Jeremiah Weed or bourbon; plus extra for brushing
2 3/4 cups chocolate chips/chunks

In a large bowl, mix the citrus peel and the Jeremiah Weed and allow to sit overnight.

In a large bowl, beat together the butter, sugar, baking powder, salt, vanilla and almond flavors.

Beat in the eggs one at time.

Stir in the flour alternately with the milk.

Stir the citrus with the liquid and chocolate into the cake batter.

Pour the batter into the lightly greased pans, filling them about 3/4 full. (The cake will make one large cake or several smaller ones. I like the individual, smaller cakes.)

Bake until done – about 50 minutes for small cakes or 1 hour 40 minutes for large cake.

Remove from the oven.

Brush while still warm with liquor.

As one might suspect, I have a huge collection of cooking equipment that is totally useless. One such item is the ORKA Silicone Squid Brush and Baster.


This little squidy device works much like a regular baster in that it sucks up liquid and then you can squeeze it on something else. It is pretty small to actually baste anything like a turkey, holding only about 1 1/2 ounces. However, if you pull off the top and fill its little squid body with say, liquor, it is superb for basting baked goods.


So, if you absolutely hate fruitcake -- reconsider and give this one a try.

Edna Lewis’ Christmas Fruitcake

Fruitcake Week is winding down over at Cookbook Of The Day and we just can't seem to stop! This recipe is from the late great Edna Lewis. It appeared in Vogue, so there is no cookbook. Fortunately here at Lucindaville, our only criteria for post is to post what we like. This recipe reminded Lewis of her mother and sister and the way the house smelled as the cakes baked. That is the reason to bake. Here is her recipe, bake it with someone you love.

Edna Lewis’ Christmas Fruitcake


1 cup diced (1/4 inch) glazed candied orange peel
1 cup diced (1/2 inch) glazed candied lemon peel
2 cups ½ inch-long thin strips citron
1 cup dried currants
2 cups raisins, chopped
1/2 cup dry red wine
1/2 cup brandy
3 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground mace
1 teaspoon double-acting baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
½ pound + 6 tablespoons (2 ¼ sticks) unsalted butter
2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
5 large eggs, separated, the whites at room temperature
1/2 cup sorghum

1. in a large bowl, stir together the orange peel, lemon peel, citron, currants, and raisins. Add wine and brandy and combine the mixture well. Let the fruit macerate, covered, for at least several hours or overnight.

2. Butter a 10 X 4-inch tube pan (or 2 loaf pans, each 9-by-5-by-3-inches) and line it with parchment paper. Butter the parchment paper well.

3. Into a bowl, sift the flour with with the spices. Add the baking
powder and salt and sift again.

4. In a large mixing bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter with the brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add the yolks, beaten lightly, and beat the mixture well. Add the flour, a little at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the sorghum and beat the mixture well. Stir in the fruit mixture with the liquid and combine well.

5. In a large bowl with a mixer, beat the egg whites until they hold stiff peaks. Fold the whites gently but thoroughly into the batter. Spoon the batter
into the prepared pan and let stand , covered loosely with a kitchen towel, in a cool place overnight to let the flavors mellow.

6. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees.

7. Bake the fruitcake on the middle rack of the oven for 1 hour and 30 minutes. Remove and cover it with a piece of brown paper (do not use foil) and bake it for an additional 2 to 2 ½ hours.

8. let the cake cool completely in the pan on a rack and it out onto a work surface. Leaving the parchment paper on the cake. Wrap the cake in
foil, and pack it in a tin, and punch a few holes in the lid or set the lid on loosely. Store the tin in a cool place. Every 2 to 3 weeks up until Christmas, sprinkle the cake with about ½ cup of brandy, wine, or whiskey. (The liquor will keep the cake moist and flavorful and help preserve it as well.)

Fruitcake Week

Fruit production in France

Why does fruitcake suck?

It's the fruit, stupid.

For years in America, women have gone to grocery store at Christmas time and purchased a tub of "fruitcake mix" for their cakes. What is in there? Well it seems that the producers of most of this "fruit" are also the producers of fruit juice. That means that after they get the juice, or section out the fruit, they have all that peel left. So you end up with dry bits of peel, with lots of food coloring and some corn syrup and voilà -- fruitcake fruit.

In Europe, especially in France, turning fruit into glacé fruit is an art form. During the reign of Catherine de Medici in the 14th century, glacé fruit was a welcome delicacy.


Over the course of 6 to 10 days, fruit is repeatedly cooked in an ever-increasingly dense sugar solution and finally dried. If you happen to be in France, especially in Provence, you will find stalls with vendors selling beautifully preserved whole fruits.


Since you are not in Provence, you need to find another supplier. My favorite:



La Cuisine has a lovely array of candied and dried fruit. It is one of the only places I go to get my "fruitcake mix."

Some people swear by Nuts Online. I have never tried them, but they seem to get rave reviews.

I love the soft diced ginger at King Arthur Flour. Their fruit cake blend is not my favorite because I am not fond of dates, which they included. If you don't mind the dates, it is a more rustic dried fruit blend, forgoing the citrus.

If you are close to a Trader Joe's, their dried fruits are great.

Of course, I always bake my fruitcake's in Lucinda's Wood Cake Boxes. But then, I make them! Fruitcakes need to cook low an slow, so the wood make for great cooking. And for shipping to loved ones...


It doesn't matter what you cook the fruitcake in if the fruit is of a poor quality. So please, shop around. If you have a favorite fruit source, do let us know.

For some fine fruitcake recipes, check out Cookbook Of The Day.