Friday, March 1, 2013

Recipe: Delia Smith's Homemade Welsh Cakes

Happy St. David's Day to all my Welsh friends and readers. St. David's Day is the National Day in Wales and is celebrated on 1st March every year,in honour of Dewi Sant or St David, the patron saint of Wales. So, to commemorate this day, I decided to make something Welsh. 

Homemade Welsh cakes.. a real treat indeed..


Welsh cakes, also known as picau ar y maen and pice bach in Welsh language or "Griddle Cakes" in English are traditional Welsh treats. Traditionally, they are cooked on a hot bakestone (Welsh: maen), and later iron griddles are used and is now the predominant method to cook it. It is made from butter, self raising flour, sultanas/raisins and spices. To kick start our "Cook Like Delia Smith" event for March 2013, I picked a Welsh cake recipe from her website.

Delia Smith is an English cook and TV presenter, who is well-loved in the UK. According to Wiki, she is the UK's best-selling cookery author, with more than 21 million copies sold. I have been her fan for a very long time, so I suggested Delia Smith to be our March "star".

My mother-in-law gave me a 1996 version of her cookbook and it is one of the most useful cookbooks I have around the house. I also learnt a lot of basics of Western cooking from this book. I like her style because her recipes are usually quite comprehensive, so even a beginner will be able to follow a recipe easily. Here are some previous Delia Smith recipes I have tried: pavlova with fresh strawberries, fresh lemon curd, lemon curd butterfly cakes, American brownies and orange sauce.

So, back to the Welsh cakes. Luckily for me, Delia had a recipe for Welsh cakes on her website. I have eaten Welsh cakes several times (in Wales), so I had a rough idea how it was supposed to taste and look like. Circular in shape and about 5mm thick, I would describe the texture as a cross between a soft cookie, shortbread and cake. I was very pleased with the homemade ones that I made in under 30 minutes and my kids absolutely loved them. I made half the recipe, which yield 14 Welsh cakes and they were all gone within 15 minutes! I served them with some butter, blueberry jam or homemade pineapple jam (a fresh batch I just made that afternoon with Sarawak pineapples). This buttery cake is best served warm.


I couldn't resist making some heart-shaped Welsh cakes.. not so traditional but it put a smile on my kids faces

Warm Welsh Cakes with butter and blueberry jam.. yumm!

Soft and buttery delights


Baby C had hers with Nutella ;)


Happy smiles :)


Homemade Welsh Cakes
Recipe adapted from Delia Smith
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 10-12 minutes
Makes 20-25

Ingredients
225g self-raising flour
110g butter or margarine, cut into small cubes plus extra for greasing pan
75g sultanas or raisins
75 g caster sugar
1 small egg
½ teaspoon mixed spice

1. To cook these you need a heavy, flat, iron pan (sometimes called a griddle or girdle). If you do not have a griddle, then you can also use a good solid heavy frying pan.

2. Sift the flour, mixed spice and sugar together in a large mixing bowl, then rub in the butter or margarine as you would if you were making pastry. The mixture should be crumbly and resemble breadcrumbs.



3. Add the sultanas or raising and mix it in thoroughly. Then beat the egg lightly and add it to the mixture. Mix to a dough and, if the mixture seems a little too dry, add just a spot of milk. If it's too wet, add a little more flour.



4. Transfer the dough on to a lightly floured working surface and roll it out to about ¼ inch (5mm) thick. Then, using a 2½-inch (6.5 cm) plain cutter, cut the dough into rounds, re-rolling the trimmings until all the dough is used.

5. Lightly grease the griddle with some butter. Over a medium heat, cook the Welsh cakes for 3-4 minutes each side or until golden brown. If they look as if they're browning too quickly, turn the heat down a bit because it's important to cook them through. Serve them warm, with lots of butter and homemade jam or Welsh honey.



Great as an afternoon tea treat


Made with love xoxo


********************************* 

I am submitting this to the "Cook Like Delia Smith" bloghop which I am co-hosting with Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids and Mich of Piece of Cake. To join, simply cook or bake any recipe from any Delia Smith websites or cookbooks and blog hop with us for the whole month of March 2013.

Your post must be a current post i.e. posted in March 2013 - please do not link older posts.Please mention Cook like a Star in your post and link back to Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids, Mich of Piece of Cake and Baby Sumo of Eat your heart out.

You can get the HTML code here: get the InLinkz code (Click on the link, copy and paste the HTML code into your blog post where you want the blog hop list to appear. Make sure you are in HTML mode when you paste in the code)

Happy cooking! Do check out the other bloggers recipe below:



NOTE: March 2013 marks the first anniversary of Cook like a Star event. Zoe, the main host for this event will be giving away a gift to a Cook like a Star participant who cooks or bakes the most popular recipe within the Delia Smith, Cook Like a Star blog hop event. To win, you have to be trend setter of Cook like a Star with Delia Smith theme. This means that if you are the first person that cook or bake the most popular Delia Smith recipe for this month, you will be the winner.

37 comments:

  1. ooo, i hadn't known about the existence of st david's day, but it sounds cool. and it's an easy date to remember, heheh :D great-looking cake-cookies ... no surprise that baby d looks so satisfied eating them! :D

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    Replies
    1. Hehe I used to live in Wales for a few years, so I know all about St David's cos we usually get the day off! Hehe.

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  2. Hi Yen! Does it taste like scone? Looks good!

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    Replies
    1. I guess it looks like a scone, tastes a little like a scone but more buttery and crumbly.

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  3. wowie..this is completely new for me. Love the use of a griddle to make the welsh cakes and loved the pretty and happy smiles!!

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    Replies
    1. I think it's pretty convenient to use a griddle and good for those without an oven to try!

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  4. I've never tried Welsh cakes before! They look delicious with butter and jam! Your children look so happy...mommy always makes great food! They are such a lucky kids. ;)

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    Replies
    1. All our kids are lucky cos we feed them well! Hope they feed us well when we're older too. :P

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  5. It's been ages that I've not had Welsh cakes. These Welsh cakes look good & sweet with heart shape ! Baby C's Welsh cake was lovely decorated ! ;)

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    1. Hehe thanks, I dont always give them sprinkles and cake decor cos they're just full of sugar but since this is a treat, why not?

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  6. Nicer than Scottish shortbread?

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  7. I think it will go well with peanut butter too! hehehe.

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    Replies
    1. Baby D had 3 pieces, 1st one with peanut butter, one with pineapple jam and one with blueberry jam! Haha.

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  8. Looks like scones to me... love the crumbly texture!

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    Replies
    1. I think scones rise a bit more, but yes I love the texture!

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  9. So these yummy looking welch cakes (that cooks on a hob) is from Delia Smith, heehee! Yummy! Btw, your two children are just eye candies!!

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    Replies
    1. Haha thanks you're so kind! It's always easy to take photos of them when they have treats in front of them.. lots of smiles!

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  10. Sort of like scones but grilled not baked ! They look yummy esp with butter and jam :D

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    Replies
    1. Yes lots and lots of butter and jam is good!

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  11. Hi, Yen, I like the "lines" that were formed across the cakes which made them look like waffles from certain angles. Thanks for sharing this with us as I neither heard nor eat this before. Have a lovely weekend! Your children are very cute!

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    Replies
    1. I had these a long time ago in Wales, kinda miss them and since it's St David's Day I thought of making some ;)

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  12. It has been years since I last ate these but I should give these a go! :D

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    Replies
    1. I miss having them too, was good to finally be able to make them at home!

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  13. Looks like something I'd really like! Make me some next time, pretty please? ;)

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  14. Hi Yen,
    These sure look good! I can imagine having these with a lovely cup of warm tea!

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    Replies
    1. They're definitely very enjoyable, couldn't stop at 1 piece :)

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  15. Cakes looks super tempting, luvly clicks.

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  16. Btw I'm ur new follower.
    Have a wonderful day:)

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  17. Hi Yen,
    Your Welsh Cakes looks so tempting!!
    Love your heart shape ones, look so sweet~~
    I can see your Baby C enjoy it very much.

    I have some awards for you. Please collect them here: http://my123favourites.blogspot.com/2013/02/sesame-roasted-chicken-and-awards.html
    mui

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  18. Welsh cakes are part of my heritage and I ate them often as a child. These look really nice and I love the heart shaped ones.

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  19. Hi Yen,

    I remember seeing your husband in his traditional Scottish dressing before... he and his family (your MIL) must be imparting you lots of his traditions and food knowledge to you. Nice that you have great opportunity to learn :D

    I have never tried Welsh cakes before they look very delicious with homemade jam and butter.

    Zoe

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  20. There is nothing more pleasing to a mother than children enjoying home-bakes :)
    My sis-in-law lives in Wales & used to buy Welsh Cakes when she visited my mum. I miss them. I will make my own one day :)

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