Welsh Cakes
Picau ar y maen — little cakes on the stone. Cooked on a hot bakestone or heavy pan, spiced with mixed spice, freckled with currants, and best eaten warm with a dusting of caster sugar.
Ingredients
225 g self-raising flour
1 tsp mixed spice
110 g salted butter, cold, cubed
85 g caster sugar, plus extra to dust
75 g currants
1 large egg, beaten
2 tbsp whole milk (if needed)
Method
- 1
Rub the butter into the flour and mixed spice until it looks like fine crumbs. Stir through the sugar and currants.
- 2
Add the egg and bring together into a firm dough, using a splash of milk only if it is too dry to come together.
- 3
Roll out on a lightly floured surface to about 1 cm thick. Stamp out rounds with a 6 cm cutter.
- 4
Heat a heavy, flat pan or bakestone over a medium heat and cook the cakes, uncrowded, for 3 minutes on each side until deep golden and cooked through.
- 5
Dust with caster sugar while still warm and eat with a cup of strong tea.
Cook's notes
Keep the heat steady — too hot and the outsides scorch before the middles bake. If in doubt, cook one and cut it in half; adjust from there.