SC - SC REC Bara Brith (Welsh)

[cclark at vicon.net]

Elysant wrote:
>Henry of Maldon says:  
>> I don't know if the Welsh documentation goes back that far, but something
>> much like this was known in later Renaissance England as Great Cakes, Spice
>> Cakes, Banbury Cakes, or simply Cakes. 
>
>"Bara Brith" isn't a cake it's a bread.  Bara being the Welsh word for bread. 

Perhaps what we have here is a problem with translation. Bara may be the
only Welsh word for bread, but evidently bread and cake are both English
words for bara. Most likely an Englishman from the late Renaissance who
tried "Bara Brith" from either of your recipes would instantly recognize it
as a cake. There are some modern cake recipes that are bread-like as well.
In modern times there has been a tendency to use more shortening and sugar
in both breads and cakes, and far more liquid in some cakes, so that some
things that were once called cake might now be called bread. But even so,
your recipes look to me (as a native speaker of American English) more like
cake than bread.

> The consistency of "Bara Brith" is like that of a nut bread with raisins in 
>it, and it's sliced and buttered like a loaf.

The cakes to which I refer also have a bread-like texture. As I recall, I
have been told by a Welsh acqaintance who used to live in England that
modern English currant cakes are likewise eaten with butter. Some cakes in
the later Renaissance may have been iced, others seem not to have been. I
don't know whether or not they were sliced and buttered.

Cake. Bread. Cake. Bread. Let's call the whole thing off.

Alex Clark/Henry of Maldon

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