WHAT I’VE LEARNED FROM THIS
• This is definitely a group divination method. It’s not as much fun or as practical alone. Unless you’re going to make it a practice to bake a set of mini-muffins, stick a single charm in each one, then have one or two at breakfast each day to either discern how your day is going to go, or glean advice. Otherwise, consider it a party-food or a family-get-together food. • Barmbrack tasted to me like a coffee cake. This would be a good cake to serve the morning of New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day. It would also make your contribution at a pot luck a subject of interest and a topic of some conversation.
• I found the traditional Barmbrack recipe posted above rather labor-intensive. Really, any quick-bread recipe will do. It doesn’t have to be a sweet-bread. As long as you can stick your parchment-wrapped charms into the batter sufficient to hide them, you’re golden. And there are simpler quick-bread recipes than Barmbrack out there. I’ve had a good quick-bread recipe book in my collection for years. Titled Fast Breads! By Howard Early and Glenda Morris, it has a variety of quick-bread recipes, both sweet and non-sweet. Why not a beer-and-cheese divinatory quick-bread?