bastable cake

Syllables: ba·sta·ble cake/ˈbæstəbl ˌkeɪk/US/ˈbæstəb(ə)l ˌkeɪk/

bastable cake noun: a round loaf of soda bread that is baked in a bastable (“an earthenware or cast-iron pot used for baking over a fire”).

Image: michael clarke stuff, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

bastable cake (plural bastable cakes)

(Ireland) A round loaf of soda bread that is baked in a bastable (“an earthenware or cast-iron pot used for baking over a fire”).
- Sister Cornelia was in the corner puffing and blowing like a porpoise as she made a new bastable cake, that she, bein' a County Waterford woman, like the "blower" itself, had introduced into them parts.1929, Shaw Desmond, Tales of the Little Sisters of Saint Francis, London: Grant Richards & Humphrey Toulmin at the Cayme Press, →OCLC, page 297
- There was no show but the heap of sweet cake, not to mention all the shop bread, he brought from town. Bastable cakes would be too common for the likes of such a grand dance, a mhic ó! There was enough there to feed half the parish.1933 January 21, “Ballyvourney” [pseudonym], “Michileen: On ‘Shoneens’ and Their Select Dances”, in An Camán: The Organ of Irish Ireland, volume II, number 3, Dublin: Cumann nGaedealac, →OCLC...

It was bread, really, but because it was baked in the three-legged iron pot, called a bastable oven, and because of its nice round shape, Ma called it bastable cake.1979, Karen Branson, Jane Sterrett, The Potato Eaters, New York, N.Y.: Putnam, →ISBN, page 34:
That would be as good as any bastable cake.1988, Tadhg Ó Buachalla, translated by Aindrias Ó Muimhneacháin, Stories from the Tailor, Cork, Munster: Mercier Press, →ISBN, page 38:
The Christmas pudding was boiled in it [a flour bag] and then wrapped in another, dry one for storage, and it was wrapped around the hot bastable cake to soften the crust.1988 May, Alice Taylor, To School through the Fields: An Irish Country Childhood, Dingle, County Kerry: Brandon, →ISBN; republished as “Old...
With each goose she placed a big brown bastable cake, and eventually everything, including my father's potatoes and turnips, was stored in the cart behind the jennet.1994, Alice Taylor, “Bringing the Christmas”, in The Night Before Christmas, Dingle, County Kerry: Brandon, →ISBN; republished New York...

plural	bastable cakes

From bastable (“earthenware or (later) cast-iron pot with three short legs and a lid, used for baking over a fire”) + cake.

What does bastable cake mean?: Bastable cake means a round loaf of soda bread that is baked in a bastable (“an earthenware or cast-iron pot used for baking over a fire”).
How do you use bastable cake in a sentence?: It was bread, really, but because it was baked in the three-legged iron pot, called a bastable oven, and because of its nice round shape, Ma called it bastable cake.
What part of speech is bastable cake?: Bastable cake is a noun.
How do you pronounce bastable cake?: Bastable cake is pronounced /ˈbæstəbl ˌkeɪk/ (UK).
What is the plural of bastable cake?: The plural of bastable cake is bastable cakes.

Adapted from Wiktionary: bastable cake (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-bastable cake.wav.

Cite this entry: “bastable cake.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bastable_cake. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.