Welsh Cakes for St David's Day
Author: 
Recipe type: Dessert
Cuisine: Welsh
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 16
 
Welsh Cakes, or pice ar y maen - a traditional Welsh tea time classic, with an option to make them gluten free if needed.
Ingredients
  • 225g self raising flour or for gluten free, use a white flour blend (Doves works well)
  • ½ teaspoon mixed spice or ground nutmeg
  • pinch salt
  • 100g butter, cold from the fridge, cubed
  • 75g caster sugar
  • 75g dried mixed fruit, currents or sultanas
  • 1 small egg
  • A little milk
Instructions
  1. First, sift together the flour, mixed spice and a pinch of salt. Rub the butter it into the flour, as you would for making pastry. When the mixture becomes crumbly add in the sugar and fruit. Beat the egg with a couple of tablespoons of milk and then add this into the mixture, working it into a dough.
  2. Move the dough onto a lightly floured worktop and roll out to roughly ½ -3/4 centimetre thick. Using a ~6.5cm circular cookie cutter cut the dough into rounds.
  3. Using kitchen paper lightly smear the griddle pan all over with butter and warm over a medium heat. Cook the cakes in batches for 2-3 minutes each side until golden browned - making sure that they are cooked on the inside as well as the out.
  4. Sprinkle with a little extra caster sugar and serve warm.
  5. Keep re-rolling and cooking the left-overs until all the dough is used up.
  6. Some Welshies serve with extra butter on top. This was not our family tradition!
Notes
I have found that gluten free flour is quite dry so you may need a little extra milk to help it come together.

You can use 225g plain flour + 1 tsp baking powder if you don't have self raising.
Recipe by Ceri Jones Chef at https://cerijoneschef.com/welsh-cakes-for-st-davids-day/