In the spirit of St. Brigid

Today is St. Brigid's Day. It kinda snuck up on me as we were a bit preoccupied over the week so what I had planned in my mind will have to wait until later this week or next year. In the meantime, here is a recipe for a Celtic Tea Cake that I absolutely love. We will make this today in honor of the patroness of Ireland. It is so moist and tasty and sweet. I always wondered, though, how it was called a Celtic cake when it calls for coconut? Oh, well......it still tastes good!!

Ingredients::
Cake:
1/4 cup boiling water
1 cup very hot milk
1 cup quick cooking oats
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cups firmly packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsps baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp salt

Oatmeal-Crisp Broiled Topping:

4 tbsps unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup milk, cream, or half/half
1/2 cup shredded coconut1/4 cup quick cooking oats
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

~ Preheat oven to 350. Generously grease a 9-inch round cake pan.

~ In a medium bowl, stir boiling water, hot milk, and oats together and let stand 20 minutes.

~ In another bowl, cream butter with brown sugar until smooth. Mix in eggs and vanilla and blend well. Fold in oat mixture and then flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Blend to make a smooth batter and spoon batter into prepared pan.

~ Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until cake springs back when gently pressed with fingertips. 

~ While cake bakes, in a medium bowl blend together all topping ingredients.

~ After you remove the cake set the oven on broil. Spread topping on cake and place cake under broiler on second shelf for 3 to 5 minutes until topping begins to bubble, watching carefully so it does no burn. Cool well.

 

Looking to tomorrow we've begun making some lanterns to light tomorrow evening in celebration of Candlemas. This is a do ahead project :)

 

Fill some regular balloons with water (not water balloons, too fragile). Freeze them in any manner you can (outside if it's cold enough or in a freezer.) Before they've frozen completely, break open the balloon and pour out the water. There will be a place to set on of those battery operated tea light candles. You could even dye the water different colors and have colored ice lanterns. If your balloons freeze all the way, you will need a paddle attachment drill bit for a power drill and then you could open up a space big enough to fit the tea light candle by drilling into your solid round ice block!

 

This is one of our lights ready to go! They are very pretty, especially at night when their light dances of  the snow. I will post again tomorrow with more pictures and a little look into how we celebrated St. Brigid's Day and Candlemas!

 

Wishing you all a blessed return of the Light xo