enchanted green: my herb garden

Irish Cooking
Recipes for St. Patrick's Day

Glazed Irish Tea Cake

A lovely extra for an Irish breakfast or brunch, or a sweet ending to a St. Patrick's Day meal, these delightful tea cakes can be wrapped in foil and stored for three days, or wrapped to be airtight, and frozen for up to three months.

PREHEAT OVEN TO 325F, with rack in center of oven. Generously grease a 9-inch (7-cup capacity) loaf pan. Dust with flour; tap pan over sink to discard excess flour. Cut piece of parchment paper or waxed paper to fit bottom of pan. Set aside.

FOR CAKE

Cream butter, sugar and vanilla in mixer until fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating each until fluffy. Add cream cheese. Mix well. Sift flour, baking powder and salt together. Put currants in small bowl. Add 1/4 cup of flour mixture to currants. Stir currants until well coated. Add remaining flour to batter, alternating with buttermilk. Mix until smooth. Use wooden spoon to stir in currants and all of the flour. Stir until well combined.

Transfer batter to prepared pan. Smooth surface with spatula. Bake until well-browned and toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, about 1 hour, 25 minutes. Cake will crack on top. Let cake rest in pan for 10 minutes.

Use a flexible metal spatula to separate cake from sides of pan. Carefully remove cake from pan to cooling rack. Spread glaze on warm cake. Let cake cool completely.

FOR GLAZE, combine sugar and lemon juice in small bowl. Stir until smooth.