Sometimes the simplest recipes are the best.
Take Welsh Cakes, for example. It just doesn't get much more basic and simple than Welsh Cakes, yet they are pretty much one of the tastiest things on the planet.
I remember taking a cooking course when I was in elementary school (way WAY back when) and the lady teaching it made these. I was instantly hooked.
I recently saw some pins on Pinterest and was reminded of these fabulous little morsels. The recipes I could find online were all in metric/by weight so I did a little conversion math and came up with the measurements in this version. I, by no means, claim to have "come up with" this recipe. It has been around since the dawn of time (pretty sure) but the conversions here are mine. Hopefully they work as well for you as they did for us.
Definitely give them a try. You probably have all you need in your kitchen right now!
Welsh Cakes
Ingredients
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp nutmeg
pinch salt
1/2 cup butter, cold
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup currants (dried)
1 egg
2 Tbsp milk
Topping
1 - 2 Tbsp sugar, for sprinkling
Directions
In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, nutmeg, and salt. Using 2 knives or a pastry blender, cut in the cold butter until mixture resembles course crumbs.
Stir in the sugar and currants.
Make a well in the center and add in egg and milk.
Using a fork, mix in the ingredients until dough comes together.
Flour a work surface and then roll dough out to approximately the thickness of your baby finger.
Cut out with a round cookie cutter. (Apparently, traditionally the edges should also be fluted!)
Reroll the trimmings and cut out more rounds.
Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Lightly grease with either cooking spray or a little butter.
Place as many rounds as will fit on the skillet without touching.
Cook approx 3 -4 minutes on the first side. Carefully flip over.
Cook for another 3 or so minutes. (If bottoms are going too dark, too fast then turn down your heat!)
Remove from pan to a wire rack.
Sprinkle immediately with a little sugar.
Continue cooking remaining cakes.
These are amazing served warm with a little butter OR room temp with some jam.
Like scones but different.
Little fluffy and crispy bites of heaven.
P.S. - This recipe makes 12 cakes using a 2.5 inch cookie cutter.
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These look really yummy!
ReplyDeleteThank you @Nicolthe pickle :) I could eat them every day!
DeleteHey, Nico, they are really good warm.
DeleteI’m welsh and have made these since I was a little girl I’m now in my seventy's so yummy .
Deletethey look like a more reasonable alternative too (giant) muffins, yummy, too.
ReplyDeleteThese sound so yummy! Fluffy and crispy... they almost sound like they would melt in your mouth. Yum! Thanks so much for sharing at Inspire Me Wednesday. Featuring you in this week's issue.
ReplyDeleteWelsh Cakes are tasty& fluffy but NOT crispy
DeleteThank you for taking me back to my grandma's kitchen. As a little girl I would help her make "tea cakes". These were so good, fluffly and they do melt in your mouth. I used cake flour....
ReplyDeleteI didnt like the nutmeg flavor maybe next time ill use cinnamon instead
ReplyDeleteCinnamon would be an awesome substitute :)
DeleteOr cardamon and cinnamon
DeleteMace is the best substitute for the nutmeg in this recipe. So good!
DeleteNo No, to spices, they are much tastier without any spices in them
DeleteWelsh cakes originate from Wales in the UK (where I live). They've been around since the 19th century & were taken to work as a snack by miners. I remember eating my grandmother's delicious Welsh cakes.
ReplyDeleteTraditionally they were made using mixed spice, however, they are commonly made using cinnamon, which is a delicious substitute ��
Thanks for sharing…we Welsh’s will be trying them!! G & G Welsh
DeleteMixed spice is the best I think.
DeleteCan i bake them instead
ReplyDeleteYou could definitely bake them but it would change the texture of the cake. :)
DeleteAnother person said you are to cook them in a dry skillet. So if you're avoiding the geese, give that a try
DeleteNo you do NOT bake them, Only cook on top of hob,using a bakestone or thick pan. they only take a couple of minutes to cook on either side
DeleteI have been making these since I was a girl and am now 76 , and my grandmother made them before me , and I’m Welsh and still live in Wales. My recipe varies from the one shown , but is even simpler.
Delete8oz flour (I use self raising or flour with baking powder)
4oz of butter or margarine ,I often use just 3oz to cut down on the fat ,it doesn’t seem to make much difference.
4oz sugar ,again I cut that down to 3oz for personal taste. Mix fat and flour together to the consistency of breadcrumbs .
Add the dried fruit again according to your taste raisins , currant , sultanas , just one or a mixture
Add egg and a little milk , mix into a stiff dough, roll out and cut into circles . I have never used cinnamon or tasted any with cinnamon or any other spice in .For cooking a bake stone was used but now I use an old thick bottomed frying pan , I can’t lift the bake stone. The frying pan is not greased only floured, by the time you brown both sides they are usually cooked. Some people sprinkle with sugar, I don’t . Enjoy
These look and sound so so good
ReplyDeleteThank you Rosey :)
DeleteNever thought of using a different spice for these! Thanks for the idea :) I guess you could add an extract to the batter as well.
ReplyDeleteNo please do not use spice, spoils the flavour
DeleteWow Pooley, you just seem to be the absolute expert
DeleteThe really nice thing about being a cook is that you can do whatever you want with a recipe. I always laugh when people write in and say, “Can I leave out the cinnamon? I really don’t like it.” Do they think they’re mandated to include the cinnamon? I am Welsh and You can add any spice you desire to your Welsh cakes OR no spice at all. You can add mini chocolate chips if you want or chopped nuts. And kind of dried fruit. Traditionallly, they were made a certain way due to the availability of different ingredients.
DeleteAre these considered a cookie or breakfast cake.
ReplyDeleteHi Ronna, I'm not sure what a "breakfast cake" is but I would definitely say they are not a cookie.
DeleteWhat perfect little things! I'm going to make them. Thanks for posting this recipe! Can you suggest a substitute for the currants? Would reconstituted dried cranberries work? Thanks~
ReplyDeleteDried cranberries would work as would raisins. :) I wouldn't reconstitute them.
DeleteMy Welsh grandmother made these on a bake stone that was over a 100 years old...passed down from generation to generation. I looked forward to them whenever we visited her.
ReplyDeleteCan i use raisins?
ReplyDeleteYou can use raisins they will are just bigger and plumper than currants so they may alter the texture a little bit. :)
DeleteSultanas are better than raisins as they are smaller & softer., One of the recipes I use is instead of currants or sultanas I use cranberries ( chop mine up as the are more distreputed in the mix,also a few ounces of coconut & white chocolate chopped up or grated. they are delicious warm. I recommendyou grease you thick bottomed pan at every new batch you are cooklng If you do not like dried fruit, omit from recipe. when cakes are cooked & cooled, sp[it in half spread jam (strawberry or raspberry preserve)on each half & put back togther. Children usually love these jam splits.
DeleteMy grandmother and Mother used to make these but they called them fried scones! They are lovely warm with butter and golden syrup, golden syrup was known as cockies joy in my Nanna’s day too!
DeleteMade these today to try out for a tea. Very yummy, and not crumbly like a scone. I grated the cold butter and mixed it instead of cutting it in. The butter stayed colder that way. Worked great. I’ve already caved and have eaten two of them warm with jam.
DeleteI made these this morning. They are absolutely FANTASTIC! Cinnamon is an excellent substitute for the nutmeg. I put dried cranberries in mine. I like to sample my cooking as I go along. This time around I ended up eating 3 of them before the family got to them. Excellent!
ReplyDeleteWelsh cakes with ingredients measured in cups is all wrong, lol. In Wales (Welsh Cakes) would be in pounds and ounces.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Sheila. pounds & ounces or metric. cups are too complicated.
DeleteJust made these this morning as it is “Family Day” here in Canada, and they were excellent! Thanks for the great recipe.
ReplyDeleteThank you for stopping by and letting us know you enjoyed them! :)
DeleteMy British grandmother always made these, always with nutmeg and currants. I think that cooking in the skillet is important for the texture and we never greased it. Comfort food but largely unknown to most people I know.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jo and Sue. Just made and ate them now after a long time waiting to make them.
ReplyDeleteReal comfort food and so light too.
Love the foolproof cup measurements - just what I needed ��
Joe.
So glad you liked them! Thanks Joe. Great name by the way ;)
DeleteGreat pictures! Cakes look amazing...���� Brought back nice memories of co-worker who used to make them.����
ReplyDeleteon my list of "must make". Thank you for sharing this recipe.
Thank you for stopping by! We hope you like them as much as we do! :)
DeleteI am Welsh and my Mum still makes these regularly but as kids my brother and I wouldn't eat dried fruit so My Mum started making batches specially for us where she would substitute currants for chocolate chips which I can highly recommend as a much naughtier treat. They also freeze quite well Mum makes huge batches some with currants some with choc chips and then just whips them out of the freezer when she knows guests are coming and they are still delicious but you can't beat them freshly made and hot off the bakestone
ReplyDeleteLove the idea of using chocolate chips! :)
DeleteDelicious delicious and easy to make I will make this one again thank you
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by! :) So glad you liked them
DeleteHi, can’t wait to make these, they look delish! Could blueberries be used instead of currants?
ReplyDeleteYou could but it's going to change the texture a bit.
DeleteLooks yum! I will try this ... definitely! Thanks.
DeleteWelsh Cakes have been made for generations, as Anonymous said,,,,I Have a "Skillet "given to me from my mother and her mother,it is very heavy cast iron, it has never been in water ! Only wiped clean with dry cloth, we use as little as possible to grease,,,
ReplyDeleteTraditionally they should be cooked on a cast iron bake stone as last comment says. My hubby is an amazing welsh cake maker and we recently made 1300 to raise money for our only children’s hospice in Wales . Our son climbed Kilimanjaro for the hospice and our £600 from Welsh Cakes went towards his total pot of £5,000.
ReplyDeleteOh wow! That is a lot of Welsh Cakes! Cast iron is always fabulous to cook on. :)
DeleteHi Jo and Sue. I have a similar recipe in US measurements called Raisin Griddle cookies, where raisins take the place of currants. There is also a lemon variation leaving out the raisins. I think I will make these this weekend using craisins. I love these cookies.
ReplyDeleteThanks Liz. Lemon would be a great variation for these :)
DeleteThese looks so yummy .. I wonder if I can put some veggy instead of currants and sugar .. can I ??.. Alice
ReplyDeleteHi Alice, I've never tried to substitute the currants and sugar with vegetables before so I can't be much help. Sorry about that.
DeleteWhere have these been all my life!? I couldn't make them fast enough for a brunch I hosted...the adults were as bad as the kids trying to snag them as soon as I took them out of the pan! Many, many thanks for sharing this recipe!
ReplyDeleteYay! So happy everyone loved them :) Thanks Mamie67
DeleteThese look and sound delicious. I will try them soon. Thanks for sharing this recipe.
ReplyDeleteMavis in Ontario, Canaada.
I am glad to find this recipe. I remember when I was in my 20's & this type of recipe was on the back of a raisin box. I searched all over for a few years looking for this recipe
ReplyDeleteWill wait until the autumn to try these. Do not use oven in the summer at all.
I think you are supposed to fry them, not bake them in an oven?
DeleteCan you use blueberries?
ReplyDeleteYou could but it will change the texture of them a little bit. Blueberries are much larger and juicier than dried currants.
DeleteI use my mother's recipe which dates back to the 1940s. Try using a mixture of lard (or vegetarian equivalent) and butter and you shouldn't need to use milk.
ReplyDeleteLook yummy and not unlike from Eccles Cakes I ate as a little girl and now make for my family
ReplyDeleteI made some Welsh cakes some years back & never forgot them. I will be making them once again with this lovely recipe.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much!
Lephalale, South Africa.
ReplyDeleteSounds yummy. Was going to try making crumpets for Sunday brunch but think I will try these using cranberries and cinnamon. ��
Would using chocolate chips instaed of currents work? My kids dont like currents or raisens
ReplyDeleteUsing chocolate chips would change the taste and the chocolate would melt and potentially burn in the pan... that being said, I have never tried it so if you do, let us know how it goes for you!
DeleteYES chocolate chips can be used, Or make plain Without spices ,when cooked split the weshcake spread with preserves ,sandwich back together. A great favourite with kids
DeleteI made these today and they are so delicate and yummy. We love scones and these are a lovely substitute. I did need to add more flour as it was really wet and couldn’t be rolled out. Will definitely be making them again.
ReplyDeleteI make these a lot & freeze them for when there need another day.
ReplyDeleteI made 10 dozen of these at a time on my grandmother's griddle (everyone wants batches of them). You can substitute sultanas for currants and add a little mixed spice. Do not add cranberries or coconut. None of those things are used in true Welsh cakes . Make something else using the ingredients. Also do not split them and add butter (make scones for that. I am an 'older' Welsh lady and will fiercely protect the original delicious recipe.
ReplyDeletedoesnt say if its plain flour or self raising flour
ReplyDeleteRegular AP flour :)
DeleteAre these similar to Eccles cakes?
ReplyDeleteEccles are much flakier than these are. :)
DeleteEccles cakes are totally different. Eccles cakes are currants and spices mixed with a little butter and then wrapped in puff pastry and baked in the oven and sprinkled with sugar... I am sure there will be plenty of recipes on Pinterest.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely amazing, love them just the way the recipe spells it !
ReplyDeleteGranny used buttermilk, patted out cut into triangles and cooked on a griddle. Had a towel folded in half, ready for them.
ReplyDeleteHas anyone tried these using gluten free flour or any other flour?
ReplyDeleteI love Welsh Cakes, but have never tried making them. I will certainly try this recipe! My Welsh mother-in-law will be so thrilled to try some. She was an excellent cook, but is now too disabled to manage cooking.
ReplyDelete