Welsh Cakes
An easy recipe, not just for kids. These Welsh Cakes are a delicious treat any time. Preparation is simple and cooking takes just six minutes.
250g / 9oz Self raising flour
125g / 4½oz butter
100g / 3½oz superfine / caster sugar
Handful of seedless raisins
1 medium sized egg
1 teaspoon of olive oil
½ teaspoon of baking powder
Pinch of salt
Pinch of Mixed Spice (All Spice)
Four drops of milk
The first few steps of this recipe are essentially making a snortcrust pastry mix from scratch. For Welsh Cakes, an egg, sugar and some raisins are added to the standard shortcrust pastry mixture. If you want to learn more about making shortcrust pastry, see the video below.
Put the self-raising flour, baking powder, mixed spice and salt in a large bowl. Use a fork to mix all of the ingredients together.
Mixing dry ingredients for Welsh cakes
Chop the butter into very roughly 2cm / 1in cubes.
Add the butter and flour to the bowl and use your fingers to rub the butter into the flour until the mixture is crumbly. You will always end up with some larger crumbs but this is not a problem.
Crumbly pastry mixture
Break the egg into a bowl and whisk lightly until mixed.
Add the egg, sugar and raisins to the mixture. Mix all the ingredients together with a spoon. Add the very small amount of milk and mix again so that it can be formed into a ball (see the video above "HOW TO MAKE SHORTCRUST PASTRY" for a visual explanation of how to form the pastry into a ball).
Pastry mixture ready for cooking Welsh Cakes
Sprinkle a little flour on a flat surface and use a rolling pin to roll out the mixture to about 1cm / ½in thick. Keep turning the mixture as you roll it out to stop it sticking to the surface.
Pastry mix rolled out
When the mixture is rolled out, use a 5cm / 2in pastry cutter to cut out as many cakes as possible. Give the pastry cutter a twist before lifting out each cake.
Cutting the pastry into circles.
Add the olive oil to a frying pan and heat to a low to medium heat. Test using just one cake first to get the heat level correct. Add some of the cakes to the pan and cook for three minutes. Flip the cakes over and cook for a further 3 minutes. Each side should be golden brown.
STEP 5Arrange the Welsh Cakes on a plate, sprinkle some sugar over them and eat!Welsh Cakes can be eaten warm or cold, our own testing rated them slightly better when warm.