Barmbrack
A tea-soaked fruit loaf with a ring hidden in it, sliced and buttered. Ireland's Hallowe'en cake.
Photograph credit: Barmbrack in section by Sinead Davies · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Don't Make These Mistakes
Overnight soaking, no shortcuts.
Tea strong enough to be undrinkable.
Slice it thick and butter it heavily.
How to Make Barmbrack
Tap a step to highlight it, or turn on Cook Mode for large type and step-by-step focus.
-
Put the dried fruit in a bowl with the sugar, pour the hot tea and whiskey over and stir.
-
Cover and leave overnight, at least 8 hours, until the fruit has swelled and most of the liquid has gone.
-
Heat the oven to 170°C / 340°F and butter and line a 900 g loaf tin.
-
Stir the beaten egg, orange zest and marmalade into the soaked fruit.
-
Sift the flour, mixed spice, cinnamon and salt over and fold in until just combined.
-
Scrape into the tin and level the top.
-
Bake 60 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean and the top is dark.
-
Cover loosely with foil after 40 minutes if it is browning too fast.
-
Brush the hot loaf with honey and leave in the tin for 15 minutes.
-
Turn out and cool completely before slicing thickly and buttering.
Related guide: Prep, cook and total time.
Something wrong or unclear in this recipe? Report a problem with this recipe.
Why the Method Works
Soak the fruit in hot tea overnight and it plumps to the point of bursting, which does two things: the loaf stays moist for days, and the fruit stops stealing moisture from the crumb during baking. Fruit added dry gives you a cake that is stale on the second morning. Use tea strong enough to be undrinkable — it is carrying most of the flavour.
After You've Cooked It
Keeps 1 week wrapped and improves for the first three days.
If You're Missing Something
- No self-raising flour to hand? The common home substitute is the same weight of plain flour with 2 teaspoons of baking powder for every 150 g, sifted together well; the rise may not be identical to a bought self-raising flour.
Serving Barmbrack
- Salted butter
- A pot of tea
- Hallowe'en
Questions and Answers
How long does Barmbrack take to make?
20 minutes of preparation and 1 hour of cooking, plus 8 hours 15 minutes of soaking the fruit, so allow 9 hours 35 minutes from start to finish. The method also needs time for cooling completely, which it does not time, so treat that as a minimum. The recipe serves 10.
Barmbrack Nutrition
Per serving, an approximate calculation from the ingredient list. Treat it as a rough guide: part of the energy comes from foods, or weights per item, with no recorded source. The calories include 2 g of alcohol a serving, which is not part of the protein, carbohydrate or fat. How the figures are worked out.
Your notes on this recipe
Cooked this? Keep a note for next time
Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .
You Might Also Like
More Irish cooking and baking ideas from Weekly Delight.
Irish Apple Cake
A tender, buttery cake with a layer of spiced apple slices in the middle and a crunchy sugar top, baked in a round…
Irish Whiskey Cake
A rich Irish fruit cake of dried fruit soaked in whiskey and tea, baked slowly for 1 hour and fed with more whiskey.
Guinness Cake
A dark, moist chocolate cake made with a pint of Guinness, topped with cream cheese frosting to look like the head…
Bara Brith
Dried fruit soaked overnight in strong tea, then folded into a spiced batter and baked into a dense, dark loaf eaten…
Bienenstich
A German yeast cake topped with caramelised almonds and split to hold a vanilla cream, risen for 1 hour and baked…
Cuccidati
Sicilian fig rolls: a spiced fig, date and nut paste inside a short pastry, cut into little pillows and iced. Made…