Daffodils are out to celebrate all things Welsh!

Daffodils on 1 March

Hurray it’s March and the daffodils are out! I always love the beginning of March with the lighter days and the warmer weather. 1st March is the national day of the Welsh patron saint, St David and a chance to wear either a daffodil (or leek) as a symbol of all things Welsh. The traditional meal on St David's Day is ‘cawl’, a soup made from leeks, potatoes and Welsh lamb or beef.

Perhaps the most famous Welsh baking recipes is Bara Brith or 'Os gwelwch yn dda' which translates as ‘speckled bread’. My Uncle Albert, who lived for twenty years in North Wales always made several loaves of Bara Brith whenever we went to stay. It’s a sort of sticky ‘teabread’ made with dried fruit and soaked in black tea overnight. Once it’s baked, allow to cool, slice and spread with (Welsh) butter. 

Here's how to bake it :

450g/1lb dried fruit (mixed sultanas, currants, raisins, mixed peel)

75g/3oz soft brown sugar

300ml/½ pint black tea

1 egg, beaten

450g/1lb self-raising flour

1 tsp mixed spice

Soak the dried fruit and sugar in the tea and leave overnight. Preheat the oven to 170C/325F/Mark 3. Line a 900g/2lb or 2 smaller 450g/1lb loaf tins with baking or greaseproof paper. Add the beaten egg, flour and mixed spice into the fruit mixture and mix well. Put the mixture into the loaf tin(s) and bake for 1½ hours or until a skewer inserted into the cake(s) comes out clean.

Uncle Albert’s Bara Brith

Celebrate the national cake of Wales with a slice of Bara Brith and enjoy the daffodils. Here's how to say it in Mwynhewch eich bwyd!