Welsh Cakes...delicious!

I love to bake, but what with one thing and another I found I had no time to get my culinary skills back in action. However, somehow I’ve managed to get back into the baking habit and I’m loving it. There’s nothing nicer than using basic ingredients to concoct a recipe that has everyone drooling. No preservatives, no E numbers just honest to goodness food.

So what’s cooking in the oven I here you say?

Well today recipe is Welsh Cakes.

Welsh cakes originate from Wales and were originally made by the lady of the household as a treat to serve for afternoon tea, or to put into their children’s lunch boxes. These cakes are a cross between a cookie and a scone and a little bit like a pancake. They also became favored by coal miners as they were a perfect size to slip into their pockets and take with them deep into the mines for them to snack on throughout the very long hours they spent deep in the mines.
Try them; they are delicious eaten hot or cold, plain or with butter and jam on.

Welsh Cakes

Ingredients
Preparation method

  1. Rub the fat into the sieved flour to make breadcrumbs. Add the sugar, dried fruit and then the egg. Mix to combine, and then form a ball of dough, using a splash of milk if needed.
  2. Roll out the pastry until it is a ¼in thick and cut into rounds with a 3-4in  cutter.
  3. You now need a bake stone or a heavy iron griddle. Rub it with butter and wipe the excess away. Put it on to a direct heat and wait until it heats up, place the Welsh cakes on the griddle, turning once. They need about 2-3 minutes each side. Each side needs to be caramel brown before turning .
  4. Remove from the pan and dust with caster sugar while still warm. Some people leave out the dried fruit, and split them when cool and sandwich them together with jam. But I love them with fruit in, they are just delicious on a cold afternoon with a nice hot cup of coffee.




America 2013 the final few days of my time away!

I never get tired of my yearly trips to America. First and foremost I get to visit and stay with my friend and her family and that in itself would be enough to keep me there. But have I told you about their porch where I sit and write…No?

I love it, it’s hard to imagine doing that in the midst of October when the temperatures have dropped here in the U.K and it is but a recollection. What a lovely memory to carry me through the dreaded winter. I sit there on my chair watching the banana tree sway gently in the breeze and my mind becomes like an idea book where I have so much going on in my head I can barely get it all down on paper quick enough.

It doesn't matter if it’s sun shine or cloudy, rain or shine, windy or calm I can sit out there and listen to the humming bird’s wiz past my ear and enjoy the play between them as they slurp their way through the syrup that I recently filled.  What beautiful creatures they are, so perfectly formed and so tiny that you have to be quick with the eye to watch them.


I wonder how on earth three weeks have gone so quickly, this last time I did so much. My visit to ocracoke Island was spectacular even the ferry crossing and I’m not a good sailor. My trip to Wilmington to stay with my friend’s oldest son who is in university there and visit quaint little shops and the very famous UNCW a great place to walk around. Then there was my week with them at the beach house where I was lucky enough to see dolphins swimming and the most spectacular sun rise over the Atlantic Ocean.

When I sit on the airplane to come home, I miss it before I even take off; miss my friend and our shopping trips, and just sitting on the porch chatting with our cups of coffee in 100 degree’s heat ! Yes I kid you not, we drank it hot! We’re both coffee addict.                                                                                                So my 2013 trip to America is but a memory but all I can say is roll on 2014 for my next trip!               Here are some of my favorite photo's from this trip