Life With The Speeds: Welsh Cakes

My Father-in-law comes from Wales and Chris is rather proud of his Welsh roots.

One of his favourite things that I home bake is Welsh Cakes.

These are similar to a dropped scone and the recipe I use generally makes 35-40 cakes.

Ingredients

500g of self-raising flour (plus a little extra for dusting)

75g caster sugar (plus a little extra to serve)

1 heaped teaspoon of mixed spice

250g cold butter

a pinch of sea salt

150g mixed raisins, sultanas and orange peel

1 large free range egg

a couple of splashes of milk

You will also need scales, a large mixing bowl, wooden spoon, rolling pin, round pastry cutter and a large non-stick pan or griddle pan.

Step 1:

Sieve the flour into the bowl and add the sugar and mixed spice. Give them a good mix to combine.

Step 2:

Cut the butter into knobs and add to the dry mixture. Rub this in thoroughly until it resembles breadcrumbs (the girls usually enjoy this part, a good excuse to get messy hands!)

Step 3:

Mix in the dried fruit, then making a well in the centre of the mixture and crack the egg into this.

Adding splashes of milk to this as you go (you'll get a feel as to how much milk you need.)

Beat this together.

Step 4:

Once you have a dough mixture, remove from the bowl and place it on a gently floured surface - don't overwork it!

Step 5:

You then need to roll out the mixture until it is approx 1cm thick. The using your pastry cutter cut as many rounds as you can. Gather the leftovers, you will re roll and repeat this step until you have cut as many rounds from your mixture as possible.

Step 6:

Over a medium heat, lay a batch of Welsh cakes in the pan,

I find 6 at a time is enough in my large pan.

Cook for 2-3 minutes and then flip over and repeat on the other side. You're looking for a golden colour, adjust the temperature setting if you find they are too pale or too dark.

Repeat in batches until they are all cooked.