Irish Barmbrack

A bit confusing and intimidating the first time. I made it as directed in all respects of ingredients and measures. I used the deluxe or tropical blend dried fruit, (pineapple, mango, kiwi, starfruit, etc). It was a total hit with my daughter and she took half a loaf to work and it went over well there as well. It is heavy, dry, dense and delicious. When I mixed it I almost gave up and threw out the batter because it was more of a damp crumble than a batter. You are not going to pour this no matter what, I used a spatula to dig it out of the mixer bowl and pack it into the bundt cake pan. I had no hope for it, but baked it anyway because of the expense of the fruit and investing in lemon marmalade, (which I will never use for anything else). I am glad I did not give up on it. If you like a dense, rich and fruity cake where a 1/2″ slice is a generous portion, this cake is for you. (Think fruit cake for people who don’t like fruit cake). I have another batch of fruit steeping in tea and am making it again today.

I was pleasantly surprised. I made it as a gift for my dad’s birthday. My dad, who is one of the most discriminating foodies I know, said it was the best thing I ever baked. He absolutely loved it. He shared the brack with many other people in his nursing home including several staff members and they all have asked me to make many more bracks. Orders have been submitted! For me, my personal favorite way to eat it is toasted with butter. It takes it up a notch or two.

kind of like an Irish coffee cake. OK for St. Patty Day.

I took 2 recipes to make 1 I add pecans and soak in Rum

I took 2 recipes to make 1 I add pecans and soak in Rum

Added a small amount of orange juice in order to incorporate the dry ingredient. Also grease pan generously . Save tea as suggested by others to use if needed.

After I soaked the fruit in Irish breakfast tea I added a cup of the tea back into the batter. I didn’t have lemon marmalade but I did use orange. Toasting this until the outside is crisp and spreading it with some good, salty, Irish butter makes it the best breakfast bread Ever!

Fantastic recipe. Don’t over bake.

First, my mods — I find that it’s better to not drain the tea from the fruit and just add it all to the wet mix, otherwise the bread comes out too dry. Leave the tea in, and it comes out PERFECT. Other minor changes: I used no-sugar-added apricot preserves in place of the marmalade, and Trader Joe’s pumpkin spice blend instead of cinnamon/nutmeg. I’ve made it without orange zest too (forgot to buy an orange last time) and it still comes out delicious. I’m lucky enough to have a bulk foods place nearby so I can buy just enough dried fruit for this recipe. I use dried apricots, raisin medley, craisins, dried date bits, dried apples, and dried cherries. And of course the tea I use for the fruit is Irish Breakfast blend, double-strength. Overall: Excellent and easy. I was looking for traditional Irish recipes to get more in touch with my Irish heritage and found this one. A lot of Barmbrack recipes call for yeast and I’m terrible with yeast breads so I tried this one. Very pleased with the results. It’s now a Halloween/Samhain tradition for me!

A wonderful idea but had to make some changes, that’s why only a 3 stars. Used 1 cup of candied citrus in dices, 2/3 cup of dry cranberries and 1 1/2 cup of raisins. The dough was the problem and needed some “improvements” : I added a little pot of jam (any flavour, mine was red berries), 1/2 glass of whisky and 1 cup of melted margarine. Without those the cake would have been VERY dry ! I made it for an Irish Dance class. I made 30 “cookies” with these proportions (so reduced cooking time) and had hidden 5 dry beans and 3 coins. I had made a board explaining the ones who will get the coin will be rich this year and the ones with the beans will fall in love or/and have a baby. The funniest part was that the coins ended with the ladies and the beans to the gents !!! It was a hit and lots of fun !

the recipe says pour in pan. This batter didn’t pour. maybe I did something wrong. tasted great!

As I was putting this together I got worried that there was no fat in it and kept checking the recipe to see if I made a mistake! Then it was soooo thick I knew something had to be wrong, but I went ahead and baked it…..UNBELIEVABLE. It is rich and delicious and I will make it again and again. Thumbs up from the whole family. And with 7 of us there is always someone who doesn’t like what I have made.

I made some undoubtedly blasphemous substitutions to the recipe, but still quite liked it. Veganized by replacing the egg with 1/3 cup of applesauce; used a weird lemon tea concoction of jam-like consistency instead of marmalade; gave up on the rest of the orange zest when my grater only spat out ~1/4 teaspoon after all my elbow grease. Didn’t squeeze out the tea water, as some people suggested – I probably wouldn’t have been able to mix it otherwise! The final product has a pretty nice consistency, though the lemon tea mix gives it a slightly strange aftertaste. I’m sure if I had stuck to marmalade, it would be even better!

As to oven temperature – you really have to watch a cake before the time stated because ovens differ. I have rarely, in many, many years of baking, found a recipe that was dead on. Also, ovens differ too. 350 is good for this cake and it also gives the celcius heat for people in Europe. I lower the heat by 25 degrees after about 30 mins and do so with most cakes that have fruit. Thanks (after all the above) for a lovely and different barmbrack.

Thank you for this lovely recipe. I made it for a St Patrick’s Day party. I followed the directions pretty much with the exception of adding a 1/2 tsp cardamom (just cuz I like it). I used pineapple-apricot jam because I couldn’t find lemon marmalade. I used black raisins, dried apricots and cranberries. Not sure if the jam and raisins made it a bit too sweet. I’ll probably cut the sugar to 1 cup next time, and try orange marmalade. I do want to make this again. It’s a keeper!

Tasty, but very heavy. This is a VERY dense cake. As other reviewers said, you have to spoon the batter into the pan…there is no pouring this one. I let the cake cool for at least two hours, but it still stuck in the pan. I put some hot water in my sink and sat the pan in it – the cake loosened right up and came out without a problem.

I made this for our St. Pattys dinner… For dessert. I did the recipe exact except I could not find lemon marmalade, so I used orange. I cooked this in a bundt pan on 325convection for 40 minutes. I chose a fruit mix with apples, pears, apricots, plums. TASTY. After it cooled I put a vanilla glaze on top. We all enjoyed it, even the kids. It even works for breakfast…

It is eaten as a bread, not a cake and is a regular sight at the breakfast table! Excellent toasted – but only on one-side of course!

I really enjoyed the taste and texture of this.

This was delicious. I was a little hesitant at first. Soaking the fruit in tea was little odd but it came out really good. Would make a great morning cake.

I was frankly surprised at how good this was. I made it for a St. Pat’s day party (held a few days before it) and it was devoured with oohs and aahs. Instead of sticking objects in the bottom, I made little fortune-cookie like strips of paper, wrote “predictions” on them and rolled them up, putting them in the hole in the center of the cake. Everyone was given one of these with each serving, and it was great fun reading them aloud one at at time.