These will always remind me of my Grandma. I remember helping her make these little cakes of joy in her kitchen in her house in South Wales and at her house in Somerset. She has one of the special stones to cook them on, I really must get one of my own - I am sure my Grandma still uses hers so probably best not to poach it quite yet... The recipe is so simple and quick to make - you can be eating them 10minutes after pulling the flour out of the larder. I really must experiment with extra flavours to add, differing fruits and peels / zests etc. I guess I am a bit of traditionalist at heart when it comes to certain things.
Obviously the ones made in the picture were for Saint David's Day - Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus - but theres no reason you can enjoy them all year round, maybe I can add cranberries in summer or orange and spices in winter?
Ingredients - makes about 12
110g Chilled Salted Butter, cubed
225g Self Raising Flour
85g Caster Sugar
A Handful of Sultanas, or raisins. I used raisins, and more than a handful...
1 Egg
1tbsp Milk
Method
1. Rub the butter and flour together with you fingers to a create breadcrumb texture, I like to rolled the mixture between my palms - bigger surface area, but that's up to you
2. Add the sugar, fruit and beaten egg. Combine into a soft dough, add the milk if needed to bring it all together
3. Roll on the dough on a floured surface to about 1cm thick and using a round (or whatever shape) cutter, cut out as many shapes as possible
4. Try not to eat the off cuts, you can just re-roll and go again
5. If you have a Welsh Cake Stone, lucky you. If not use a heavy-bottom frying pan. Heat whichever you have with a scraping of butter
6. Cook the cakes for a minute or two on each side or until golden brown. But be careful, they can burn rather easily
7. Remove from the stone and immediately sprinkle with caster sugar and leave to cool, but they are best eaten warm, and by the handful
8. Enjoy!
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