Welsh Honey Cakes, Tiessennau Mel, for St. David's Day March 1st

The simplicity of the look and recipe for these little Welsh Honey Cakes, Tiessennau Mel in Welsh, belies their deliciousness - they are absolutely wonderful and quite unique in a very subtle way. You'll have to bake them to see what I mean. I made them in honour of Saint David's Day - the feast day of Wales. I found this recipe, which I have adapted slightly, by V'nut-Beyond Redemption on Food.com. They taste very good dunked in a nice hot cuppa - if you are so inclined and would give Proust and his Madeleines a run for their money!

UPDATE: I've been tapping my maple tree, yes just the one, and made these lovely cakes with my own Maple Syrup instead of honey and they were equally as delicious and good.

 INGREDIENTS for 6 little muffin cakes:

recipes doubles perfectly

2 ounces/ 3/8 cup honey - a really flavourful honey is best,
or maple syrup if you'd like

 1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

2 ounces/ 1/2 stick butter ( I always use salted because I like that flavour in my baked goods and still I add a little more salt to brighten the flavour - goes well with honey!)

2 ounces/ 1/3 cup sugar

1 egg separated

1 tablespoons milk

4oz/ 1 cup flour

a pinch of salt

DIRECTIONS:

 
1. Preheat oven to 375F/190C

2. Grease and flour a muffin tin

3. Sieve together flour, cinnamon and bicarbonate of soda.

4. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. 

5. Separate the egg yolk from the white.

6. Beat the yolk into sugar and butter, then add the honey in three goes beating well in between.

7. Stir in the flour with a little milk as required to make the batter a little softer and mix all together gently. 

8. Whisk the egg white until stiff and fold into mixture in three goes - the mix is quite stiff so do this part very gently so as to not pop all your hard earned bubbles.

9. Half fill the 6 cups of the muffin tin and smooth the tops with the back of a wet teaspoon to stop them from crowning too much then sprinkle each with a teaspoon or so of sugar.

10. Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 20 minutes. These do brown quickly and are actually browner than a similar cupcake or muffin would be but do keep your eyes on them so they don't get too brown or burnt.

11. Leave the cakes in the tin for a few minutes before turning out to cool

And there you have your little Welsh Honey Cakes or Tiessennau Mel. You could if you liked break them in two and butter but I really didn't feel like mine needed that but it wouldn't hurt to try them that way! I do hope you make these, please let me know if you do and feel free to post your pictures on my FACEBOOK PAGE. Thanks!!

Some more pictures of the yumminess:

If you are interested in my "Blue Rhapsody" design, featured as the background of these pictures, you can find it at my Spoonflower shop HERE and my CafePress shop HERE

Wales/Cymru is a spectacular country, I visited there often as a child - it is well worth the visit if you ever get the chance. Home of stunning Snowdonia:

 The Welsh flag:

The daffodil is the Welsh National flower:

My Daffodil painting available over at my Etsy shop HERE

and LEEKS are the National emblem :) Here's a LINK to some of the Welsh celebrations for their National Day.

SO....
"Dydd Gwyl Dewi hapus!" 

Other Saint David's Day recipes I have done for my blog:

Monmouth Pudding

Welsh Cakes

Snowdon Pudding

Bara Brith - Welsh raisin teabread

Signs of Spring and some Maine sayin's for when you come visit the Pine Tree State!

The magnolias are blooming and smelling divine!

A new bird's nest being made right outside our back door - we're pretty sure it's a robin's nest but haven't actually seen the birds there.

Pretty flowers out in the Enchanted Forest - I don't know what they are - look like some kind of cowslip to me.

...and daffodowndilly's nodding by the front door.

An Eastern Bluebird espied near the forsythia - nice colours together wouldn't you say?

And many more daffs to come in the Enchanted Forest - yea!!!

Here are some Maine colloquialisms for you gleaned from a wonderful article in The Bangor Daily News "Everybody’s heard about the (Maine) words" by Emily Burnham, BDN Staff
- they sound so English to me - the Brits do love their colourful sayin's!!

Dooryard: The area immediately adjacent to the front door of a house; “Take your boots off and leave them in the dooryard.”

Wicked: Synonym for ‘very,’ to a high degree, extremely, exceedingly; “That movie was wicked cool.”
 

Ayuh: Yes, affirmative; “Ayuh, it’s spring in Maine — 35 degrees and cloudy.”

Stoved, or staved: To be in disarray or fundamentally messed up; “That lawn mower doesn’t work, it’s all stoved up.”

Teeming: Heavy rain; “It was teeming wicked hard last night.” Growing up in England we would say it was teeming down too.

Yee yaw: To wiggle something to make it work; “You’ve got to yee yaw the handle after you flush.”

Glob around: To relax, or chill out; “We went up to camp and just globbed around all weekend.”

Laury: Referring to overcast weather; “It’s been laury out all week.”

Rig: Flamboyant personality; “His grandfather was a bit of a rig, always the center of attention.”

Scrid: Tiny portion; “All that was left of the soup was the scrids. What a ripoff!”

Drove right up: Busy; “At Christmas we’re drove right up, so it may take longer.”

Sprills: Dropped tree needles, “The roof’s all covered in sprills.”

Riley: Used to describe the color of the ocean after a big storm; “The bay was all riley this morning.”

Stivering: To walk unsteadily; “She was stivering down the street, so I got out of the way.”

Barvel: A fisherman’s apron made of leather or oilcloth; “They measured the lobsters, water splashing against their barvels.”

Money cat: A calico cat, especially one with at least three colors; “Aunt Kathy’s new kitten is a money cat; she’s good luck.”

Short: An illegal, undersize lobster; “They got fined for not throwing the shorts back.”

Eighteen-hundred-and-froze-to-death: the period of 1816-17, one of the worst winters Maine ever experienced; “Jeezum, it ain’t been this cold since Eighteen-hundred-and-froze-to-death!”

Fog mull: a heavy, stationary fog bank; “That fog mull rolled in wicked fast, and now I can’t see anything.”

Groaners: a whistling buoy or foghorn; “Those groaners are freaking me out so much I can’t sleep!”

Ploye: traditional Acadian buckwheat pancake; “Ployes with butter and maple syrup are totally delicious.”

Seems like a wicked good day to be making Ployes and after go globbing around in a fog mull before you stiver down the street in the teeming rain for a scrid of food with your rig friend at the lobster shack!!

AYUH!!!!!

Happy Easter - it's snowing in Maine!!

 

It's only snowing a teeny tiny bit and there are breaks of almost sun in between. Our daffodils are not out yet so I thought you might enjoy the daffodil painting above and the two Easter lily designs below. Happy Easter.

"Gilding the Lily"

"Serape" - a pencil drawing rug design

 Enjoy your day, don't eat too much chocolate - Patricia

Monmouth Pudding for Saint David's Day March 1st

Meringue, raspberry jam and a version of bread pudding underneath.

Happy Saint David's Day March 1st - National Day of Wales 

"Dydd Gwyl Dewi hapus!"

 The National symbols of Wales (Cymru in Welsh - pronounced come-rye) are the daffodil and leeks and even though there are no daffs growing in Maine yet (we're expecting 5-8" of snow tonight :(((() here are some pictures of mine from last year. If you click on the title link above you'll find lots of info about Cymru from the Welsh National Museum.

Here is a picture of the National Costume of Wales....

 and it looks like she is standing in front of an awning with the longest village name in that fair land Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch - translating to "The church of St. Mary in the hollow of white hazel trees near the rapid whirlpool by St. Tysilio's of the red cave" -

don't even ask me how to pronounce it - here's a link to some information about the town on Wikipedia and an audio for the name!!

Wales is a BEAUTIFUL country and many Brits myself included have holidayed there as a child at seaside villages such as Porthmadog and Llandudno (pronounced clan-did-no - double ll's are c's in English.

So - on to Monmouth Pudding

A simple unassuming pudding but pretty with the meringue topping.

INGREDIENTS:

Topping: The more traditional is jam - I choose raspberry jam - I recently discovered this truly delicious, bright and fresh jam at the Belfast Coop and recommend it very highly if you can find it.

  Recently some people are replacing the jam with stewed fruit - apples, rhubarb or pears - but I like to go with tradition.

PUDDING:

1oz butter

3oz sugar

6oz fresh breadcrumbs - I used white with the crust included - you can use white or wheat with or without the crust - the colours will change and the flavour but it's your choice :))

3 egg yolks

16 fl oz buttermilk (get Kate's if you can find it)

Zest of one lemon preferably organic

MERINGUE:

3 egg whites

1oz sugar

1. Heat the oven to 350F and butter 4 individual ramekins.

2. Heat butter, buttermilk, lemon zest and sugar in a saucepan to just simmering.

3. Remove from heat, add breadcrumbs and leave to absorb for 10 minutes.

4, Stir egg yolks into the breadcrumb mix.

5. Divide evenly between 4 ramekins.

6. Bake in the oven until set - about 25 minutes. While the pudding is baking whisk the 3 egg whites to stiff and then add the sugar in 3 goes whisking in between each addition.

7. Remove the ramekins from the oven - don't turn the oven off - let cool a little then spoon as much jam or stewed fruit as you like on the top - thus -

8. Now pipe your egg white meringue atop the jam and pop back in the oven for about 10 minutes until nicely browned as below - you can enjoy whilst hot - with cream or ice cream or just as is or I preferred it cooled - for some reason I do seem to prefer my hot puddings cold - who knows why.
The breadcrumb pudding part does set up quite solidly - it is not a soft pudding - just FYI.

So off you go with your leeks and daffodils and Happy Baking on Saint David's Day!

Images from Maine on a beautiful Earth Day 2011!!

I love these double daffs and have no idea where they came from...
they smell just lovely!!

Happy Daffs standing proud against the bright blue sky

Rhubarb, rhubarb what shall I make with thee...as you can see my rhubarb is not very far along today, it'll be a while before I can do a rhubarb post!!

Lots of daffs ready to bloom in the "Enchanted Forest" by the barn

Happy Beautiful Earth Day One and All!!

Some recent beautiful creations by Mother Earth!!

Sedgemoor Easter "Cakes"

CAKES??? Quoi?? Don't know why these are called cakes because they are made like biscuits/cookies and they end up like such!! They are good though, and I can't wait to dunk one in a steaming hot cup of tea.....James said they taste like Christmas in a cookie, which may be because the recipe is the old English standby of various, sundry and seemingly unending combinations of flour, sugar, better, eggs, dried fruit and candied peel. I searched high and low for a more elaborate Easter recipe to do but honestly the only other one I came up with that is traditionally British is Simnel Cake which I did last year...(you can do a search up in the left hand corner for this, I tried to do a link here but it didn't work)....it was LOVELY though and again a combination of the heretofore mentioned ingredients....make them both I say!!! Cookie cakes and a cake!!
Here's todays easy and quick recipe:
"Sedgemoor Easter Cakes" from a recipe in "Good Things in England" by Florence White...a great compendium of wonderful old English recipes...recently republished and available through Persephone Books

White flour 8ozs/2 cups
Butter (salted for me please) 4ozs/1 stick
Fine sugar 4ozs/1/2 cup
4ozs/1/2 cup plus a little more currants/raisins/white raisins/sultanas...whatever you prefer...I prefer sultanas because they are juicier
2ozs candied peel...I made my own and did orange and Meyer lemon peel
1/2 teaspoon mixed spice
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
(I personally am not that keen on mixed spice and cinnamon so I put in 1 teaspoon of freshly grated nutmeg, my fave!)
1 egg whisked
2 tablespoons of brandy (I didn't have brandy on hand so I used maple syrup so I wasn't missing out on this amount of liquid)
1. Rub the butter into the flour
2 Add sugar, dried fruit, candied peel and spices..and gently mix in
3. Add brandy, or in my case maple syrup!, to the egg, mix and then mix into the dry ingredients.
4. The mix/dough is very sticky so blend as well as you can and then just tip it all onto a well floured board and gently squush together until it is ready to roll out...I actually didn't even use a rolling pin...I just used the flat of my hand and pushed it into the shape I needed...a 1/2" deep round.
5. Cut out circles of about 3" diameter...you should get about 5 or 6...transfer to a cookie sheet.
6. The recipe says bake in a moderate oven which I translated to 325F for about 25 minutes...I actually turned mine over when I could see they were getting quite brown on the bottom and were not done on the top...and I think I overbaked them a little, which I have a tendency to with cookies/biscuits, follow your intuition...they should be nicely golden brown.
7. Ta dah!! Let them cool and munch away!!

The 'cakes' before and after...

The first daffodil.....right on cue!!! Well done little flower and welcome!!

More daffs on the way and some lovely bright crocus...hello!!

And a picture of what we call the enchanted forest next to the house...plenty of daffs here...hooray!!

I'll be with you again on Sunday...just to say "Hi"

Lilac scented daffodils, magnolias and rhubarb!

Doesn't this daff look like a pinwheel? I thought I had discovered a new form of daffodil but after doing some research online I found out this is an old-fashioned daffodowndilly (the olde englishe name) and I am disappointed to find that I shan't be having a daffodil named after me after all! What is truly wonderful about this particular daff is that it smells very much like a lilac...it's really lovely!!
Another pic of the daff with one of it's 'ordinary' friends!

...and look at this....a Magnolia blossom...too beautiful to believe...and this smells fabulous too!!

...and the rhubarb is beginning, I LOVE rhubarb and am already planning what I shall make for the blog with this tart and delightful vegetable!! Rhubarb lemonade, rhubarb sorbet, rhubarb and custard, rhubarb crumble...rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb. Yum, yum, yum!!!