It was St David’s Day this Tuesday. I’m not Welsh, although I have strong connections with Wales. My mum was born in Colwyn Bay, although she grew up in Kent and I have family who live in North Wales. I actually went to uni in Bangor, where I did my teaching degree and have lots of wonderful memories of my time in Wales. Mr S also lived in Wales for a few years as a child, near Cardigan. We both love Wales and enjoy going back to visit when we can. I did not stay in Wales after uni, as I would need to be able to speak fluent Welsh to teach in some parts of Wales. Although, I learned some Welsh at uni and was able to teach Welsh lessons in English medium schools on teaching practice. I didn’t stay in Wales, but chose to look for teaching posts elsewhere.
Being a total foodie and loving baking, of course memories of Wales revolve around food! At uni I would get the odd slice of bara brith but I never baked anything. The only time I tried to bake, was some awful biscuits I made while on teaching practice. They came out rock hard! With Welsh cakes, we bought bags of them from the local bakery on Cardigan High Street when on holiday near Mr S’ childhood home. There was a griddle with them being cooked right in the bakery window and the aroma was so inviting!
I noticed Crumbs by Collette’s #100bakeschallenge poster has Bara Brith and Welsh Cakes as two of the challenge recipes to scratch off. So what better excuse than to bake both recipes this week to celebrate St David’s Day?
My Bara Brith recipe can be found here in another blog post:
I wrote another blog post about Welsh Cakes a while back. This was when I tried out the recipe from a previous Bake Off recipe book. The recipe is slightly different to mine.
Welsh Cakes/ Pices Ar Y Maen- The Great British Bake Off Big Book Of Baking.
I shared my recipe for Welsh Cakes on Instagram after I had made them on Tuesday. They are rather addictive and I’m ashamed to say they didn’t last long. If you are on Instagram, check it out!
Happy Baking!
Love Sam xx
SmartCookieSam 