Homemade Waffles

Randomly my eldest son asked for waffles for breakfast last week, he must have seen them on a TV program or something because I have never made them before! Initially I said no and then I remembered that my toastie maker has waffle plates on it and I have never used them, so I thought why not? I googled a few recipes to see roughly what the ingredients were and then made up a batter using what I had in the cupboards.They are relatively simple to make, you just have to take care when folding in the egg whites because this is what gives them a light fluffy texture over a stodgy one - cooked well they should be crispy on the outside and light and fluffy in the middle. They cook quickly and the variations for sweet or savoury toppings are endless - myself and the boys had strawberry and banana with maple syrup and the Hubby had crispy bacon with maple syrup! If you have any type of waffle maker at home I would highly recommend giving them a go! This batter made 6 waffles.


Ingredients

170g Plain Flour
3 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
30g Caster Sugar
2x Eggs
250ml Whole Milk
1 tsp Vanilla Extract

How To Make

1. Sift the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Separate the egg whites from the yolks.

2. Combine the yolks with the milk and vanilla and then pour into the dry mixture and thoroughly combine. 

3. Whisk the egg whites until they a fluffy and form soft peaks. Then carefully fold them into the batter, keeping in as much air as possible. Let the mixture rest for a few minutes whilst you prepare you toppings and heat up you waffle maker. 

4. Cooking instructions may vary depending on your waffles maker. Mine is a 3in1 toastie maker and I cooked them by pouring approx 40ml - about half a ladle - of batter onto the bottom plate of the waffle maker and then closed the lid and cooked them for 4 minutes.

5. Once cooked, pop them onto a plate and top with your desired topping!

Marbled Chocolate Teabread

Using up over ripe bananas in cakes is something I do on a regular basis as I hate to see them go to waste so it's great to have plenty of recipes up my sleeve. This recipe is from "The Bread Machine Bible by Anne Sheasby" and I have adapted it to bake in the oven. This cake is so easy to make and expertly combines sweet banana with the depth of chocolate and the warmth of ginger. The marble effect looks lovely when sliced up, the perfect accompaniment to a cuppa! I made this one for my good friend Alexandra, who is working hard on the front line during this pandemic, she is someone who loves cake but at the moment has no time to bake it. Hopefully this will go down a treat for both her and her father. 

Ingredients

175g Butter (I use Stork)

175g Light Brown Soft Sugar

3 Eggs

225g Plain Flour

2.5 tsp Baking Powder

2 Bananas (peeled and mashed with some lemon juice)

25g Cocoa Powder

2 tsp Milk

1/2 tsp Ground Ginger

How To Make

1. Preheat your oven to 170'c and line a 2lb loaf tin with baking paper. Cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy. Then gradually beat in the eggs, adding a little flour to prevent curdling.

2. Sift in the flour and baking powder and fold in, mixing well. Then stir through the bananas. Place half the mixture in a separate bowl, sift over the cocoa powder and add the milk. Fold together until combined. Stir the ginger into the plain banana mixture.

3. Place alternate spoonfuls of each mixture into the loaf tin. Then, using a skewer, gently swirl it through the mixtures to create a marbled effect. bake in the oven for 45-60 minutes, until risen and a skewer comes out clean. 

4. Leave to cool in the tin and then turn out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.

Gingerbread Dinosaurs

My eldest son loves to bake and a couple of nights ago we read the story of the Gingerbread Man before bed and he asked me if we could make some in the morning, I never pass up the opportunity to bake with my sons and so of course I said yes! Whenever I make these biscuits I always use Mary Berry's Gingerbread Man recipe (from her Ultimate Cake Book). This is such a simple dough to make and you can use it to make traditional gingerbread men (or women) or use it to cut any shape you like - in my dino-mad sons case we used it to make Gingerbread Dinosaurs!!! My Step Dad Ian got me these awesome little cutters for Christmas and they are a must have for any dinosaur mad kid who likes to bake because they not only are a great shape and size but they have the added stencils to imprint the dinosaurs skeleton onto the cookie.This recipe makes about 20 cookies.


Ingredients

12oz Plain Flour
1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
2 tsp Ground Ginger
4oz Margerine
6oz Light Brown Sugar
4 tbsp Golden Syrup
1 Egg (beaten)

How To Make

1. Preheat the oven to 190'c and lightly grease 3 baking trays. Measure the flour, ginger and bicarb into a bowl. Rub in the margarine until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. 

2. Stir in the sugar and then add the beaten egg and golden syrup to the dry mixture. Mix to form a smooth dough. 

3. Divide the dough in half and roll out one half onto a lightly floured surface to about 5mm in thickness. Cut out the gingerbread dinosaurs, imprint firmly with the stencil and then transfer to the baking tray. Repeat with the remaining dough. 

4. Bake for 10-12 minutes until slightly darker and then transfer to a wire rack to cool. I decorated these by piping white glace icing into the bone imprints on the cookies. 

Oven Scones

Ah the simple scone! Whether you believe it is jam first and then cream (me!) or cream and then jam, you just can't beat tucking into a freshly baked, warm out of the oven scone topped with sweet strawberry jam and a dollop of clotted cream...heaven! My sister is amazing at making scones and she uses this simple recipe from Good Housekeeping and it never fails. I recently got the nudge to make a batch by my friend Kirsty who, upon seeing a post on Facebook about how the Queen takes her scones, reminded me about how we were totally out voted at a Christmas meal by the our friends and other halves during a discussion about scones because they all say that it is cream first and the jam. Well it turns out Her Majesty agrees with Kirsty and I! Whoop! Anyway, I couldn't stop thinking about scones and, seeing as they are my Hubby's favourite too, I decided to make a double batch so were half plain and half were raisin and sultana. This recipe makes 8 scones.

Ingredients

8oz Self Raising Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
40g Butter (salted)
1/4 pint of Milk (plus extra to glaze)
50g Dried fruit - sultanas, raisins, currants etc (if doing fruit scones)

How To Make

1. Sift the flour and baking powder together into a bowl. Rub the butter into the mixture so it resembles fine breadcrumbs. If doing fruit scones add your fruit now and stir through.

2. Stir through the milk, using a knife, to give a fairly soft dough. Gently roll out the dough, on a lightly floured surface, to about 2cm thick. Then cut out into rounds using a 6cm cutter. 

3. Place on a greased baking sheet and brush the top with some milk. Bake at 200'c for about 10 minutes until well risen and golden. Transfer to a rack to cool. 

4. Serve warm, split and filled with jam and clotted cream. 

Coconut Cake

I absolutely love coconut, I love the smell, the texture and the taste but coconut cakes can often be disappointingly dry. It was my Nan's 80th birthday last September and she was having a big family party at my Mum's and I was tasked with making her birthday cake. Her favourite cake is lemon, which I did for the bottom tier but her favourite smell and taste, like me, is coconut. So I really wanted to make a coconut cake for the top tier but one that was moist and flavoursome. After trialling many I finally struck gold on a website called "Sally's Baking Addiction" and found a recipe for the most delicious coconut cake, one that is moist, light and fluffy but equally packed a punch with coconut flavour - mainly down to the fact that it has 3 types of coconut based ingredient in it! It is really easy to make and worked well with my light coconut buttercream icing. My Nan absolutely loved her cake and so many people commented on how much they loved the coconut layer. Makes two 7 inch sponges.

Ingredients

275g Plain Flour

170g Butter

330g Granulated Sugar

2tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

1tsp Salt

240ml tinned Coconut Milk

5 Egg Whites

120g Sour Cream

2tsp Vanilla Extract

1tsp Coconut Extract

80g Desiccated Coconut

How To Make

1. Preheat the oven to 170'c and grease and base line two 7 inch cake tins. Sift together the flour, bicarb, baking powder and salt into a bowl. 

2. In your mixer beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Then beat in the egg whites,vanilla, coconut extract and sour cream. At this point the mixture will look curdled but don't panic! 

3. Then on a low speed gradually add the dry mixture and then the coconut milk. Lastly fold in the desiccated coconut and mix until well combined. 

4. Split the batter between the two tins and bake for 20-25 minutes until risen, golden and a skewer comes out clean. Leave to rest in the tins for 5 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack.

5. I decorated my Nan's cake with a coconut buttercream, using coconut extract for flavour and tinted it a lavender colour. I then topped the cake with a white chocolate drip and then, in line with the pastel "vintage tea party" colour theme of the decorations, I topped the cake with homemade mini meringues, party rings, marshmallows, pink fudge pieces and wafers daisies and butterflies. 

Good Old Vanilla Sponge

Vanilla sponge, the simplest and probably one of the most baked cakes! Everyone has their own recipe and this one is mine, passed down from my Mum and adapted slightly by me. I could bake this with my eyes shut I think and it makes a wonderful light, fluffy sponge every time! This is my go to sponge for birthday cakes, cupcakes and classic Victoria Sponge. This recipe makes two 7 inch round cakes or approximately 18 cupcakes or 24 fairy cakes. The pictures on here all used this recipe for the actual cake itself. You have Banana Split Cupcakes that I made yesterday, vanilla sponge with Banana Split flavour buttercream icing (icing sugar available from Sugar & Crumbs). A Salted Caramel Drip Cake that I made last year for my Husbands birthday, vanilla sponge with Salted Caramel Buttercream Icing (again Sugar & Crumbs), caramel drip and topped with homemade meringues, honeycomb, dark chocolate shards and popcorn. And also my Flower Topped Cake (my first attempt at my own flower-paste flowers) that I made for my Mum's birthday this year, a vanilla sponge cake topped with vanilla buttercream and homemade sugar paste flowers. 

Ingredients

6oz Self Raising Flour
6oz Caster Sugar
6oz Butter (I use Stork)
3 Eggs
1 tsp Baking Powder (if making cupcakes)
1 tsp Vanilla Extract (not essence!)

How To Make

1. Preheat your oven to 170'c and grease and line two 7 inch cake tins (or whatever size cake it is you're making).

2. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Then, one at a time, beat in the eggs adding a tablespoon of flour with each egg to prevent the mixture curdling. 

3.Then fold in the rest of the flour, baking powder (if making cupcakes) and vanilla and once combined give the mixture a quick beat so its light and fluffy.  

4. Bake in the oven for about 20mins until risen, golden and a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool in its tin for a few minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack. 

S'Mores Cones

I can't remember exactly how this recipe came about... We had a family BBQ planned at our local woods for my cousins graduation and I was asked to do a pudding but it needed to be something easy to transport and that didn't require more than a cool bag to keep it chilled. I thought about toasting marshmallows but that to me wasn't a pudding, then I thought about S'mores and somehow I came up with my own version - S'mores cones! My eldest had great fun helping me stuff the cones with all the filling. These are so fun, simple and adaptable - you can use any fillings you like but I'd say you definitely need either marshmallows or chocolate (preferably both) for gooey-ness. They can also be made in advance and kept in the fridge until you're ready to BBQ them. Makes 10.

Ingredients

10 Waffle Cones 

10 Strawberries (quartered)

2 Bananas (sliced) 

100g White Chocolate Buttons

100g Milk Chocolate Buttons

100g Mini Marshmallows

How To Make

1. There is no strict rule for stuffing the cones here, simply stuff the cones with each of the ingredients. Approximately 1 strawberry (4 quarters), 2-3 slices of banana and 10g each of buttons and marshmallows. Make sure you push the filling all the way to the bottom and alternate which ones you put in so you've not got all strawberry at the bottom for example.

2. Once they are all stuffed, carefully wrap each one in foil and twist the top to seal the cone in. Store in the fridge until needed.

3. When you're ready to cook them, simply pop them on the BBQ (preferably on low, or in a cooler spot if using charcoal). Leave them on there for approximately 5-10 minutes, turning every so often. They are ready when the marshmallow is gooey and the buttons have melted (open the twist at the top to check). 
 

Coffee Cake

Coffee cake is a new bake for me, I made it for the first time last year, we were having a party for my youngest sons first birthday and I was providing hot drinks and cake for refreshments. I wanted a traditional sponge that had icing but equally wasn't too sweet and I know lots of family and friends who love coffee cake. After researching online I settled on this one by Mary Berry because it sounded so straightforward being a "throw it all in" mix. It comes out lovely and moist, with a lovely coffee taste that isn't over powering but equally still has enough flavour for coffee lovers. I don't have instant coffee at home and so I used 1 shot of espresso from my coffee machine and that works absolutely. This cake is delicious on its own but even better with icing,  I topped mine with a Vanilla Latte icing (icing sugar from Sugar and Crumbs) and that blended well with the cake, adding a sweet almost fudge-like flavour. Recipe makes two 7 inch cakes.

Ingredients

8oz Butter
8oz Muscavado Sugar
8oz Self Raising Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
4 Eggs
4 tsp Instant Coffee (or 1 shot espresso) 

How To Make

1. Preheat the oven to 160'c and grease and baseline two round cake tins. Mix together all the ingredients, apart from the coffee, until blended. 

2. Gently stir in the coffee and then divide equally between the two tins. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until risen, golden and a skewer comes out clean.

3. Once the cake has cooled on a wire rack you can ice it. 

Gin & Tonic Loaf Cake

My friends all know I love to bake...they also know I love gin! So when my friend Kim saw this recipe online she tagged me in it straight away! This recipe is from The Craft Gin Club website and its very straightforward to make, like a classic lemon drizzle but with a sneaky bit of gin added in. The cake came out lovely and lemony and smelt divine! However, when it came to the drizzle it seemed so much liquid that I triple checked the recipe to make sure I was reading it correctly. I decided to omit the tonic, for fear of drowning my cake, but even without that my cake was still sat in a small puddle of liquid when I removed it from the tin after cooling and it completely overwhelmed the cake, leaving it soggy in the middle. Upon tasting I thought the cake was lovely and moist and had a lovely fresh lemony taste, with the gin adding a touch of sweetness. The general feed back was a bit like marmite - people either loved the addition of gin or they hated it but I think gin can be divisive like that anyway! I would happily make this cake again, but with HALF the liquid in the drizzle and then I think it would be spot on! 

Ingredients

3 Eggs
240g Butter
240g Caster Sugar
240g Self Raising Flour
2 Lemons
200ml Gin 
25ml Tonic Water (I left this out)
130g Granulated Sugar

How To Make

1. Preheat the oven to 180'c and grease and line a loaf tin. Cream together the butter and caster sugar until light, fluffy and pale. 

2. Beat in the eggs and then fold in the flour and the grated zest of both lemons. Stir through 100ml of the gin and the juice of 1 lemon. Pour into your loaf tin and bake for 45 minutes until risen, golden and a skewer test comes out clean.

3. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool while you make the drizzle. Mix the remaining gin (here I would only use about 30ml next time), tonic water, granulated sugar and the juice of the second lemon in a bowl. Prick the cake all over with a skewer and then pour over the drizzle. 

4. Leave the cake to cool in the tin. Once cool and the drizzle has soaked in and the sugar crystallised on top, remove from the tin and serve!

Blueberry & Lemon Loaf

It was my Mother-in-Law's birthday this weekend during lockdown and I knew my Father-in-Law wouldn't have been able to get out and get her a birthday cake and I most certainly knew he wouldn't have made her one! So I decided to make her one to drop off (social distancing style) outside her house. She always says that my Blueberry & Lemon Loaf is her favourite cake so it was a no brainer that I would make this one for her and my boys absolutely love making this one.This recipe is from my "Bread Machine Bible" book by Anne Sheasby and I have adapted it to bake in the oven. My Mother-in-Law is not a fan of icing at all and so I decided to stick to the lemon drizzle icing but I did write "Happy Birthday" across some white chocolate buttons and pop them on the top along with a ribbon. I forgot to take a picture of what the cake traditionally looks like without my garnishes. This cake is one of my go-to recipes, it comes out perfect every time and tastes delicious - kind of like a giant blueberry muffin! 

Ingredients

225g Self Raising Flour
115g Butter
115g Caster Sugar
40g Ground Almonds
1 Lemon
2 Eggs
4 tbsp Milk
200g Fresh Blueberries
55g Icing Sugar

How To Make

1. Preheat the oven to 170'c and grease and line a 2lb loaf tin. Sprinkle 1 tbsp of flour over the blueberries and coat them well. (This stops them sinking to the bottom of the cake during baking)
2. Rub together the butter and flour and then stir in the caster sugar, ground almonds and then grate in the zest of the lemon. 
3. Beat in the eggs and the milk and then gently fold in the blueberries.Pour into the loaf tin and bake in the oven for 45mins or until risen, golden and a skewer comes out clean. 
4. Leave to cool in the tin for 20 minutes or so and then turn out onto a baking tray to finish cooling. 
5. Once the cake is cool, mix the the icing sugar with some of the juice of the lemon to make a fairly thin glace icing. Use a fork to drizzle the icing back and forth all over the loaf and then leave to set. 

Blueberry Muffins

I was given some surplus Blueberries by one of my friends and she said for me to "make something with them" and so, at the request of my Husband, I made Blueberry Muffins! Simple, easy and very tasty! I used the following recipe from Mary Berry's "Ultimate Cake Book" as its very simple and I had most of the ingredients to hand, apart from she adds lemon zest to hers and I didn't have a lemon to hand so instead I added a teaspoon of vanilla extract. They came out like a breakfast muffin I think, especially as they are low on sugar and they were lovely and light. Hubby ate 2 with an hour of them leaving the oven, so I assume they went down well with him! I also gave half of the batch back to my friend, who is a nurse, for her to share with her family or work colleagues. Recipe makes 12 muffins.

Ingredients

9oz Self Raising Flour
1tsp Baking Powder
2oz Margarine
3oz Caster Sugar
6oz Blueberries
1 lemon (I used a teaspoon of vanilla extract)
2 Large Eggs
8 fl oz Milk

How To Make

1. Preheat the oven to 200'c and line a muffin tin with 12 paper cases. 

2. Measure the flour and baking powder into a large bowl and then rub in the margarine until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar, blueberries and grate in the zest of the lemon.

3. Mix together the eggs and milk and pour into the dry mixture. Mix quickly to blend, the mixture should have a lumpy consistency. Divide between the 12 cases and then bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes, until risen, golden and firm to touch. 

4. Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes and then lift out onto a cooling rack to finish. 

Gin & Tonic Cupcakes

Last year my sister had her 30th Birthday party and it was a "Cocktail & Canapes" theme. My Mum organised all the savoury canapes and asked me to do the sweet ones. They needed to be easy to pick up and not require a plate and so, sticking with the cocktail theme, I decided to do cocktail jelly shots and cocktail cupcakes - complete with "Shot Tops" which are little pipettes that you fill with a liquid of your choosing and stick them in the top of the cupcake. When eating you can infuse the cupcake with the liquid - or squirt it in your mouth as some did at the party!!! Anyway, after lots of research I settled on 3 flavours and Gin & Tonic one was one of them. I adapted my lemon sponge recipe to incorporate the Gin and once baked and iced (I tinted mine yellow) I decorated them with a slice of lemon and a shot top filled with gin and tonic. Makes 12. 

Ingredients

6oz Stork
6oz Caster Sugar
6oz Self Raising Flour
3 Eggs
Zest of 1 Lemon
1 tbsp Gin

For the icing...
200g Stork
400g Icing Sugar
2 tbsp Lemon Juice
1 tbsp Gin

How to Make

1. Preheat the oven to 160'c and place 12 cupcake cases into a muffin tray.

2. Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Then gradually add the eggs one at a time, adding a spoonful of flour to prevent curdling.

4. Fold in the rest of the flour and the lemon zest. Lastly stir through the gin. Spoon the mixture evenly between the 12 cases. Bake for 20-25 minutes until risen and golden and a skewer test comes out clean. 

5. Leave them to cool on a wire rack. Once cooled make the icing. Beat the butter until soft and fluffy and then mix in the icing sugar, lemon juice and gin. Pipe onto the cupcakes and decorate however you wish.

Baileys Cupcakes

Last year my sister had her 30th Birthday party and it was a "Cocktail & Canapes" theme. My Mum organised all the savoury canapes and asked me to do the sweet ones. They needed to be easy to pick up and not require a plate and so, sticking with the cocktail theme, I decided to do cocktail jelly shots and cocktail cupcakes - complete with "Shot Tops" which are little pipettes that you fill with a liquid of your choosing and stick them in the top of the cupcake. When eating you can infuse the cupcake with the liquid - or squirt it in your mouth as some did at the party!!! Anyway, after lots of research I settled on 3 flavours and one of them was Baileys, I know its not strictly a cocktail but with a chocolate sponge I thought this would go down a treat at the party and it was a nice contrast to the two other flavours I had devised. For this one I used a recipe on Bakingmad.com which makes 24 fairy cakes but I used it to make 12 cupcakes. I decorated them with chocolate covered coffee beans and a baileys shot.

Ingredients

40g Butter
140g Caster Sugar
100g Plain Flour
20g Cocoa Powder
1.5 tsp Baking Powder
1 Egg
50ml Baileys
80ml Whole Milk

For the icing...

125g Butter
500g Icing Sugar
15ml Milk
45ml Baileys

How To Make

1. Preheat your oven to 170'c and line a 12 hole cupcake tray with cases. Mix together butter, sugar, flour, cocoa powder and baking powder until it resembles breadcrumbs.

2. In a jug mix together the egg, baileys and milk. Then add slowly into the mixer to combine. Divide between the cupcake cases and then bake for 20 minutes until risen and golden. Transfer to a rack to cool.

3. For the icing mix together the butter and icing sugar until it resembles breadcrumbs. Then add the milk and baileys and pipe over the cupcakes. Decorate as you wish. 

Homemade Granola

I am not a fan of breakfast, I used to not be able to function without a bowl of cereal before I had kids but now I can't face it. Plus I have been finding I don't have time to sit and eat, as bad as that sounds.My husband often has shop-brought granola with milk for breakfast and has recently started buying the yoghurts with granola on top, which I quite enjoy and so I decided to maybe try and make my own granola to get me into the habit of having breakfast again. I googled lots of recipes for ideas as to what to include and it's so versatile! You can pretty much add any combination of fruit, seeds and nuts that you like. So I popped to our local Eco Store to top up on what I needed and set to work.For my first batch I used pecans, walnuts and peanuts plus apricots, apple rings, pears and raisins for dried fruit. Since then I have made it with banana chips, papaya, pineapple, sultanas, cashews, pistachios...you name it! It is fabulously easy to make and very tasty and satisfying served with yoghurt and honey for breakfast (the recommended portion of granola is 45g). Once made, the granola keeps in an airtight container for up to 4 weeks. 

Ingredients

200g Porridge Oats
120g Mixed Nuts
120g Mixed Seeds
120g Desiccated Coconut
250g Dried Mixed Fruit
4 tbsp Olive Oil
6 tbsp Maple Syrup
1 tsp Cinnamon

How To Make

1. In a large bowl mix together the porridge oats, nuts, seeds and coconut. Then stir through the oil,cinnamon and maple syrup.

2. Spread out onto a baking tray and pop in the oven at 200'c for 20 minutes. Give the granola a stir every 5 minutes to prevent bits getting too crisp. 

3. Once toasted, remove from the oven and stir through the fruit giving it a good mix up. Leave it to cool and then store in a jar or container. Serve with milk or yoghurt and honey. 

Welsh Cakes

This is new territory for me, I've never done a traditional cake on the griddle before but I have always wanted to try them. My 3.5 year old absolutely loves Welsh Cakes and so I thought I would start with these because I knew if they were successful they would go down well at home.After flicking through my many recipe books I got the basis of a recipe but had to tweak a few ingredients - mainly due to us being in the middle of a pandemic and supplies and trips to the shops being limited - but also due to personal taste! Welsh Cakes are traditionally made with currants, of which I am not a fan of as I find them gritty, and, because of this, I don't have any in my cupboards but I do have a big jar of raisins and so this was my first adaptation. My second was that most recipes use mixed spice to flavour, another item I don't have in my cupboard, and so I used a mixture of ground ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon. These little beauties are really quick to whip up and take virtually no time at all to cook and once you get the hang of it they are so easy, I'd confidently and happily whip these up again! When greasing my griddle pan (apparently you can use a heavy based non-stick frying pan if you do not have a griddle) I used butter for the first batch but I found this made them 'splodge' and lose their shape. So for the next batch I tried a little spritz of 1 Cal spray and they cooked perfectly at 4 minutes per side on a low heat. Welsh Cakes, like scones, are best eaten on the day they are made but we had some warmed up (under the grill for 1 minute) for breakfast the next day and they were still delicious. They also freeze really well too and I sometimes get one out for my eldest for breakfast or lunch, pop it straight in the toaster to defrost and warm through. This recipe made 18.

Ingredients

225g Self Raising Flour
100g Butter
75g Caster Sugar (plus extra for sprinkling if you wish)
75g Raisins
1/4 tsp Ground Ginger
1/4 tsp Cinnamon
A pinch of Nutmeg
1 Egg
1 tbsp Milk

How To Make

1. Rub together the butter and flour in a bowl (or in a mixer) until they resemble fine breadcrumbs.

2. Stir in the sugar, raisins and spices. Then beat the egg and milk together and pour into the dry mixture. Mix together until it comes together as a firm dough.

3. Tip out onto a lightly floured surface and then roll to about 5mm thick. Cut into rounds using a 7.5cm cutter (I used the fluted edge for a nice shape).

4. Lightly grease and heat a griddle pan. Cook the Welsh Cakes for about 3-4 minutes per side on a low heat, if you cook them too fast they will be raw in the middle. 

5. Transfer to a wire rack to cool and then dust with caster sugar (optional) and serve.