Baking quick questions

Caterina

Ohhh it sounds yummy, I might make one just for puddings, let alone Christmas!

Primrose

Bara Brith is more a type of tea bread than a cake. My OH has recently made several batches and in my opinion, I prefer it to cake as it's not so sickly and has fewer calories. It's like a type of not-too-sweet bread containing sultanas or currants which you bake in a loaf tin. It can be served with butter and/or jam and is delicious without you feeling "hyped with sugar" after you've eaten it.

Olliebeak

I've only ever once made a REAL Christmas Cake by following a proper recipe. It was for a Christmas present for my youngest sister and it was fabulous. Cost me a small fortune at the time and I used decent Butter in the recipe. By the time I'd bought the brandy for soaking it with and then the marzipan and icing, it would have been far cheaper to have bought one.

I think whatever kind of cake means Christmas to us, that's the way to go. There's certainly no point in putting ourselves through purgatory to make things that our families won't eat - or that we'll sit looking at for 2wks before deciding to give to the birds in the garden.

Some of us like the buttery/spicy/fruity/booziness of the real McCoy with marzipan/icing or the bejewelled glazed fruit topping or the nutty Dundee Cake

Some prefer an ordinary Rich Fruit Cake while others would rather have a BaraBrith/tea bread kind of cake.

My no.2 sister, who is the 'family foodie' wouldn't thank you for anything with a currant/sultana/raisin/date anywhere near it - still has shuddery memories of school-style 'Fly Pie'. Personally, I LOVED Fly Pie :drool:.

None of my adult kids are interested in the usual dried fruits, so I make a Yule Log, Cherry Cake and a Lemon Drizzle with butterfly cakes for kiddies.

Bronnie

As primrose said, bara brith is more of a bread than a cake, a plain and simple tea time offering traditionally made with the last of the day's bread dough. very delicious though!

However it wouldn't keep fresh for anywhere near as long as a Christmas cake and is best eaten within 2 days. After that it's usually served toasted to use it up for this reason. Maybe better to make small bara brith loaves and freeze, to bring out fresh from the freezer as required over Christmas.

You can glaze them with a sticky honey/syrup glaze and although not-traditional , you could add some glace cherries/chopped dried apricots which looks more festive. The bara brith is quite similar to the bread part of stollen I think.

ETA Stale bara brith makes a mean bread and butter pudding too!

Rereading your post, OP, what are the family's expectations, does traditional Xmas cake get woofed down every year, or does it languish in the tin til March? This type of cake is a rare treat for me so tbh, I'd be a bit disappointed to get bara brith if I was expecting Christmas cake!

lorrenna

its a christmas cake bake off that im involved in with the other members of the family with my bro in law judging it. so i suppose they are expecting a christmas cake. but with 5 of us taking part, thats a lot of cake. so i thought about doing something a bit different. i figured if i put it in a cake tin, it might disguise it to be a christmas cake. lol. i also figured its guna be cheaper and easier.

LilacLouisa

Bara Brith is gorgeous, we used to buy it in Anglesey when we were on holiday. The small bakeries sold the best ones.

I quite like Pannetone too at Christmas, especially for breakfast with coffee. If you want to make something a bit more like a traditional cake, Delia has a recipe for one made with mincemeat which can be made one or two days before, or you could make a boiled fruit cake to your own requirements. There are probably loads of recipes for those on here, they are very simple to make and don't need hours of very slow baking.
I am sure whatever you make will be delicious.

PasturesNew

Tell them you dropped yours .... then take home half of somebody else's after the judging... very MSE.

Mojisola

lorrenna wrote: »

its a christmas cake bake off that im involved in with the other members of the family with my bro in law judging it. so i suppose they are expecting a christmas cake. but with 5 of us taking part, thats a lot of cake. so i thought about doing something a bit different. i figured if i put it in a cake tin, it might disguise it to be a christmas cake. lol. i also figured its guna be cheaper and easier.

Do you really want to be involved with this? I can see it leading to family disputes!

A bara brith has very little fat in it compared to a Christmas cake which is why you slice it and butter it like a loaf of bread. It's not going to compare well with proper fruit cake recipes.

Primrose

Well, I find that actually very few people have much of an appetite for very rich Christmas cake later in the day on Christmas Day after they've all gorged themselves silly on Christmas lunch. And to be faced with several rich cakes all of the same type would be overwhelming. I think Bara Bryth would be a very nice substitute to be eaten at teatime. Previously Christmas cakes we've had have sometimes lasted into February because they're just too heavy and sickly. I'd get everything ready for Bara Bryth and make it a couple of days before hand and wrap it in foil as soon as it's cold when it should be OK for Christmas Day.

Mojisola

But this isn't an issue of what's going to be best on Christmas Day - it's a Christmas Cake bake-off which is going to be judged.

Either make a proper Christmas cake - perhaps with a lighter mix - or say you don't want to be involved with the competition.