An Irish fruit filled cake served on Halloween, cooked with symbolic fortune-telling objects inside: a ring signifying you'll find true love and marry, a thimble meaning you'll never marry, a bit of rag predicting poverty, and a coin showing you'll become rich. *(See end of recipe) 1/2 cup milk 1 tsp of sugar 1 tsp of fresh yeast (or 1 rounded tsp active dry, proofed) 2 cups regular flour (with active dry yeast, use rounded cups) 1 tsp allspice (yr. own mix or store bought) Pinch of salt 1 egg 3 tbsp butter 2 cups yr. choice dried fruit (raisins, candied fruit peel, whatever) 2 tbsp sugar Continued below ...
Put the yeast, sugar, & milk together in a bowl; beat until the milk becomes frothy. Put the flour, sugar & spice in a separate bowl, then mix in butter with a fork. Pour milk mixture into bowl with flour, beat ingredients together for 5 mins or until dough forms. Knead dough for two mins, then work in fruit & salt. Place the dough in a warm bowl, cover with towel, allow it to rise for an hr or until it has doubled in size. Knead the dough again, adding fortune-telling objects of yr choice (see above). Continued below...
Place in floured/greased 8 in diameter cake pan or a loaf pan; allow an extra 25 mins of rising time. Bake at 400°F on top rack of oven for 30-45 mins or until toothpick inserted into cake comes out clean. Glaze the finished cake with a simple sugar syrup made from 2 tsp sugar (or honey) dissolved in 3 tsp of boiling water, if you like. *WARNING: the fortune-telling objects in the Barnbrack are, of course, small enough to choke on. As with a Mardi Gras King Cake, make everyone aware this is a cake that contains some objects. Needless to say, supervise the kids if they are eating (or poking through) a piece of Barnbrack!
This is an awesome recipe! Thanks so much for sharing. Can't wait to give it a try.
Thanks, please do try it! I'd recommend doubling this recipe if you've got more than 4-6 people eating it. It is important to eat some of the cake to ensure a good fortune foretold can come true. The reverse is true for an undesired fortune, of course... Barnbrack's also a tasty & fun party cake to fool around with combined with an evening of fortune telling, any party in October really. Plus even kids who don't like "mystery food" they're not familiar with are intrigued by the Barnbrack story & can't help tasting a little of it (esp. if you coat it with a sweet drizzle of syrup)!
I've never heard of this cake before, I love the idea of it, thanks!
