Traditional Welsh griddle cakes
I don’t generally enjoy baking unless I’m making something for someone else. I don’t have much of a sweet tooth (unless we’re talking about chocolate, which is an entirely different story), and I don’t like being lumbered with tins full of baked goods that I don’t want to eat. Anyone want to come over for cake?
This week I had a reason to bake. I’m back at my parents’ house for the weekend, and since it was my Dad’s birthday on Wednesday, I came bearing stacks of Welsh cakes. Since he’s Welsh and all. His Mum used to make Welsh cakes for him every weekend when he was a kid, so I thought I’d help him relive his youth through his stomach. It was nice to cook something from my childhood – my Granny often made these for me and my brothers too.
Welsh cakes traditionally contain raisins or currants, but since my Dad doesn’t like dried fruit, I left these out. If you want to, you can include around 85g of raisins. Or, you can split them in half and fill them with a thin layer of jam to make little sandwiches. I have no idea how my Granny used to manage this, since they’re very thin and quite brittle, but feel free to give it a go. I decided to skip this step, since I didn’t think that a plateful of many many broken Welsh cakes would make a very attractive photo.
These are really easy to make, just make sure you have the pan on a really, really low heat, otherwise you’ll end up with undercooked middles and burnt outsides. You want a nice golden colour. Also, roll them out nice and thin, because they puff up a little during cooking (mine were on the thick side).
The best way to eat these is dunked in a cup of tea, but that might just be my way of combining the Welsh and English parts of my heritage.
Recipe adapted from London Eats
Makes around 12 cakes
225g self-raising flour
115g butter
85g caster sugar
85g currants, optional
1/2tsp ground nutmeg
1/2tsp ground cinnamon
1 egg
Rub the flour and butter together with the tips of your fingers until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon and currants (if using). Add the egg, and knead for 1-2 minutes until the mixture comes together into a dough. If it is too dry, you can add a tiny splash of milk (I didn’t need to).
Turn out the dough onto a floured surface, and roll to 1/2cm thick. Use a round cutter to cut the dough into circles.
Put a griddle pan or frying pan over a medium heat, and grease it very lightly (I used spray oil, which worked perfectly). Once it has warmed up, turn the heat down to low and add 3-4 of the Welsh cakes. Cook for around 5 minutes each side, until the cakes are golden brown and just about firm (but they will continue to firm up as they cool). Transfer to a cooling rack, and continue to cook the Welsh cakes in batches.
I just saw this post on RecipeNewZ – what a great recipe! Love it! I have seen Welsh cakes a couple of times, but never tried. Now that I see how simple it is, I want to make them myself. They look so delicious! Thanks for sharing :-)
these look yummy! I will have to try these soon!
Thanks for sharing this yummy recipe! I would love for you to link up to my Linky Party.
Hello Becca – Here’s an amazing tidbit of coincidence. My name is Joe Carbone and my wife and I make Welsh Cakes in the U.S. as a business since 2009. Our company is called “The Welsh Baker” and our facebook page is http://www.facebook.com/WelshBaker. We make 1000’s of these cakes every week. First off, somewhat amazingly, your cakes looked VERY much like the cakes we make, which is ununusual as most people who make these cakes by hand end up with much thinner and irregularly shaped results. If you go to our website you will see cake displays just like what you display above. The more amazing thing to me is that my wife and I also have a daughter and we call her… guess what? Becca, short for Rebecca! That’s some crazy coincindence! We roll our cakes in fine sugar and I don’t see you did that.. if you decide to do this again in the future, we recommend rolling lightly in Bakers Sugar (it’s finer than regular sugar). Keep up the good work!
How funny! Glad my Welsh cakes meet your exacting standards! :) Thanks for sharing my post too!
I was actually very happy to see your cakes turned out so nicely. We sometimes get people saying “Your cakes look too perfect” but we know that if you take your time and do it right you can get a nice looking result, as your cakes clearly demonstrate. It also helps if you make 1000’s every week, you tend to get good at it :) BTW – Where abouts on this planet do you call home? We assumed Wales since you used metric measurements in your write up and since nobody in America uses metric..
I’m living in Liverpool at the moment actually :) I’m originally from Hertfordshire though. I’ve visited family in Wales a lot, but have never lived there myself.
Oh my gosh, my dad (who is half Welsh) has been making these recently and they are delicious! He loves currants, and so do I, so they are left in. It’s good to see these pop up!
Oh cool, do these look anything like your Dad’s?
I’m the same way about baking. Your recipe looks awesome, I definitely want to slather jam or butter all over the cakes and enjoy them with a huge cup of coffee! Happy Easter, lady!
Thanks, same to you!