We make Welsh cakes every year to celebrate St David's Day, they are really simple to make and are great for snack and lunch boxes. You can buy them quite easily from the supermarkets now, but as with most products they are no substitute for the homemade version.
This recipe has been handed down by my grandmother and my mother used to make them for me when I was a little girl.
To start with, you need to following ingredients:
8oz Self raising flour
4oz Butter
4oz caster sugar
4oz raisins
1tsp nutmeg
1 egg
a little milk
You start by rubbing the butter into the flour and nutmeg to make breadcrumbs, just the same as you would for pastry.
Next stir in the sugar and raisins.
Then add the egg and if you need a little milk, but be careful not to add too much as you want the dough to be dry enough to roll.
Mix all the ingredients together, it will seem very dry and crumbly at first but don't add any more liquid, if you keep kneading it for a few minutes it will come together like cookie dough.
Now you need to roll the dough to about half a centimetre deep, then cut out circles with a cookie cutter about 7cms. You should get around 20-24 out of this amount of dough.
Next we cook them, Welsh cakes are quite unusual as they are cooked on the hob not in an oven. Traditionally they are cooked on a large flat griddle, but I just use a frying pan which works just fine.
Just grease the pan a little, you're not frying them. Then pop a few cakes in the pan on a medium heat.
They don't really look any different when they are cooking so after a couple of minutes have a peek underneath to see if they are brown and carefully turn them over, make sure you keep checking as they do burn quite easily.
Once they are brown on both sides they are done, don't worry if they still seem a little soft and squishy, they will firm up as they cool, leave them on a cooling rack to cool completely and dust with some caster sugar.
They are delicious as they are or spread with a little butter.
