Royal Rascals!

So, the royal baby has arrived! Prince William and Kate have had their baby boy, George Alexander Louis, the third in line to the throne and one day King. The dozens of photographers who were camped outside the hospital wing for weeks can finally go home and the nation can finally celebrate! I knew I wanted to bake something themed to celebrate this special royal occasion but I was slightly stumped. My decorating skills are not up to the level of creating intricately iced cookies, my family doesn’t need a huge celebration cake hanging about (much as I’d like to think we do) and there options for naturally blue food are pretty non-existent once you’ve got past blueberries. It was my Dad who eventually suggested these – Royal Rascals!True, my Dad suggests these every time I wonder what to bake – they are one of his favourite things. But this time I loved the idea. Whilst baby Prince George of Cambridge will obviously live a very different life to the overwhelming majority of people, I hope that he still gets a chance to be a little rascal (definition: a mischievous or cheeky person) as he grows up. Plus, there aren’t many things more quintessentially British than a scone! In honour of the baby I added sparkling silver balls to my traditional fat rascal recipe, found here, and of course welcomed the opportunity to use my royal napkins! Enjoy :)

Keeping it Simple

Sometimes, simple is just what the doctor cook ordered. Simple because you’re tired, simple because you’re ill, simple because the cupboards are bare. Maybe simple because that’s all you need to evoke a happy memory. This summer, my family went to Cornwall for a week. It rained pretty much the whole time – a bit of a shock just back from sunny Italy – but whilst it was exasperating I don’t think it mattered that much. It was a rare occasion for us all to be together: no friends, no parties or shopping. The whole week we were craving scones, but kept missing the opportunity to buy ingredients and the rain kept us out of teashops. On the penultimate day of the holiday we finally caved and bought some, and the wait was worth it. Thick layers of jam and cream – and a hearty debate about which should be spread on first – and the rain was all but forgotten.As a result of the Guild of Food writer’s competition, I recently spent a wonderful afternoon at delicious. magazine. The office is rammed with food, and they were kind enough to give me some samples for me to take home, including a big pot of clotted cream. I’m sure there are lots of adventurous recipes involving this sinfully rich product, but I was only ever planning scones. They’re a classic! I used this Ballymaloe White Sweet Scones recipe, but halved it as it makes a massive amount and I still managed a decent 12 and some of these were huge. Fittingly, it rained for the whole duration of making and baking these, but then again would I expect anything different in London in October? Enjoy!

Cheese Scones

I’ve been promising something savoury for a while now so finally here I am! Probably as savoury as I am going to get on here – I do way prefer cooking sweet things. Also, my Mum takes care of the savoury and there aren’t specific recipes just a bit of this and a pinch of that, equalling a delicious meal!

I said I would make these when my Dad got home, and as he got back yesterday morning I did these this evening. Simple ingredients, simple method – lovely result!

Cheese Scones from the Good Housekeeping Cookery Book

Makes 16 (no way would the batch make this much if you want them the thickness it suggests in the book. I got 8 big ones and one widgy one with the left over bit of dough!)

1. Grease a baking sheet. (Oh I didn’t grease it! They came off fairly easily although perhaps greasing it would have been easier...).
2. Sift the flour, salt and baking powder together in a bowl and rub in the fat until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. (I did this in the Magimix.)
3. Stir in half the cheese, the mustard and enough milk to give a fairly soft, light dough.
4. On a lightly floured surface, roll out to about 2cm (3/4inch) thick and cut into rounds 5cm (2inch) plain cutter.
5. Put on the baking sheet, brush the tops with milk and sprinkle with the remaining cheese.
6. Bake in the oven at 220’C (425’F) mark 7 for about 10 minutes.
7. Cool on a wire rack.

Although I would choose a fruity scone with jam and clotted cream as The Best Scone Ever - I liked these! In my mind they are best warm with some good butter on top – lovely.

As you can see below they sort of exploded into interesting shapes whilst baking, but they were for my Dad and he liked them so that’s all that matters.

Fat Rascals

The past few days have been fairly busy sorting things out from out holiday and also trying to sort out the whole house after builders laid a lovely new floor on our whole bottom floor whilst we were away. The view from the bottom terrace!

As I said previously, we had a lovely holiday relaxing, enjoying the views from one of the suntrap terraces as above, or just chilling out by the pool with a good book – but some days we did go out and on one in particular we drove down about 2hours to the famous Alhambra gardens on the mountains beside Grenada. A view over Grenada old town (which we visited on my Dad's birthday!) from the Alhambra.

The gardens were beautiful and we did have a nice time looking round the various palaces dotted around the gardens. As it was my Mum’s birthday we ate at restaurant called the San Francisco Parador for a birthday lunch – I can report that some parts were good (my orange chocolate ice cream cake!) other parts were very disappointing (a surprise starter soup where we couldn’t quite work out what the flavour was). We didn’t see everywhere because that day temperatures were around 38’C-40’C and we were desperate to get back to the icy pool! Me in the Alhambra!

Today I made Fat Rascals! I was going to help make birthday cake for my Daddy but the tins are still in storage so that is tomorrows project. These Fat Rascals, however, certainly did not disappoint! They are a cross between a scone and a rock cake and the idea originated in Yorkshire where the recipe was a simple dough with currants. I have watched my Mum make these before (and enjoyed the end result!) so decided to have a go myself. It is a recipe from the Waitrose website, and these cakes are served at Betty’s tearooms in York. They worked a treat. The idea is to make about 6 huge scones and drop them in a “rascally fashion” onto the baking tray. The method is rather similar to the Welsh Cakes I made.

I didn’t have some of the exact ingredients and the weather is so awful I wasn’t eager to go out so I made some easy substitutions – which as usual are in pink with the recipe. Very good results – I would definitely recommend these.

Fat Rascals, from Waitrose Magazine

Makes 6

Ingredients: 150g plain flour, sieved
150g self-raising flour, sieved
1tsp baking powder
130g cold butter, cubed
90g caster sugar
Grated zest of both one orange and one lemon (I used the grated zest of a lime)
1tsp cinnamon (I used 1tsp of ground mixed spice instead which contains cinnamon and nutmeg) ½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg (see above)
150g mixed dried fruit (I used 150g currants)
50ml milk

Glace cherries and blanched almonds to decorate

1. Preheat the oven to 200’C.

2. Sieve both flours and the baking powder into a bowl. Add the butter and rub into the mixture until it resembles breadcrumbs.

3. Add the sugar, zests, spices and dried fruit and mix well.

4. Add the beaten egg and enough milk to bring the mixture together into a soft (read sticky) dough.

5. Form the mixture into 6 saucer sized rounds – 2cm deep.

I split my dough into 2 batches - so if anything went wrong with the first I could alter

the problem and rescue the second lot. Luckily, everything worked well!

6. Transfer to a non-stick baking tray and make for 15-20mins.

7. They are best served warm with butter and jam, but can be frozen and reheated.

Because he has now had to wait 4 days before getting birthday cake, I made a special Fat Rascal just for my Dad:

The end result was delicious - buttery, crumbly dough, sharp currants, crunchy almonds and oh-so-sweet glace cherries! Enjoy! x

Cakes from Wales...

Yesterday I finally had the chance to bake in our new, extended and refurbished kitchen (and our new range cookeer/oven with shiny chef top!). Although it is still not quite finished so I was working on cardboard worktops, and I had no weights for my scales - the multitude of lovely fluffy cakes I served up at the end made it all worth it!

Yes, that is my kitchen at the mo!

We have gone to the same cottage in the Pembrokeshire area of Wales for two years now - both times at Easter. We have great times there (I went for my first proper bicycle ride there - I didn't learn until I was 12) but how does that link to these cakes? Both times we have holidayed there we have arrived very late at night, exhausted and grumpy after the long 6-7 hour drive from London. We would arrive and in the kitchen spy a huge tin filled to the brim of freshly home-baked Welsh cakes. It was the best greeting! They were crumbly and light - perfect with a smear of butter. They cheer us up before we head off to bed and you can bet they won't last longer than 3 days within our family!

After we got back this year, relaxed and rested, I knew I wanted to recreate these little scones in our own kitchen. Unfortunately I never got round to it before the building work started but yesterday, with no builders around, me already bored in my summer holidays and desperate to get back to cooking after 3 months of no kitchen and ready meals :( - I searched for a recipe, went out for the ingredients and got mixing!

There were 3 in a row and the little one said..yum yum!

The Mary Berry recipe I used was very easy to follow and quick and simple to make up. I enjoyed making them because the steps were easy and all they needed was a bit of a stir together! For rolling them out we have lost our rolling pin so i just flattened the dough out with my hands but I am sure none of you have that problem! I had trouble making the dough an even thickness, though, so when cooking they were done at various times. The ones in the middle of the chef top cooked a lot quicker than the edges so I shall bear that in mind and try to squeeze a few more near the centre as they do not spread at all. These would be a good go-to recipe if someone comes to visit at short notice and you want to serve them something scrummy, as they look like they may be more complicated than they actually are!

I did make a few alterations which I think really helped them and if I make them again I might experiment more. A touch of orange juice or zest, variations on the fruit - perhaps cherries and sultanas, or dried cranberries, maybe some more spice or for a more decadent treat even some chopped chocolate!

Here's the recipe, with my alterations in pink!!


Welsh Cakes from Mary Berry's Complete Cook Book, by Mary Berry

Makes 12 (I forgot to count but I know the recipe made a lot more than 12, probably 20)


250g (8oz) self raising flour
1tsp baking powder
125g (4oz) butter
90g (3oz) caster sugar (when I put this amount in, it disappeared into the batter immediately so I put in another tbsp :P)
90g (3oz) currants(similar situation as with the sugar, I didnt weigh an amount just put in another 3-4 tbsp of currants until they were evenly distributed)
1/2 tsp ground mixed spice (I spilled a bit extra to make it up to 3/4 tsp but my tasters suggested it needed still more)
1 egg, beaten (so i forgot to beat it..it didnt make the slightest difference!)
about 2tbsp milk (Mary suggests this as a maximum, but to combine the mixture I used 4tbsp! this is probably due to the extra currants and sugar)
sunflower oil, for greasing (forgot to use! not sure it was neccessary?)
7cm (3in) pastry cutter (as I could not find my cutters, I simply trimmed my dough into long rectangles and cut triangles)


1. Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl. Add the butter and rub in with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.


2. Add the sugar, currants and mixed spice, and stir to mix. Add the egg and enough milk to form a soft but not sticky dough.


3. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the dough to a thickness of 5mm. Cut into rounds with a pastry cutter (or triangles with a sharp knife) .


4. Heat a griddle or a heavy frying pan and grease with a little oil. Cook the Welsh cakes on the hot griddle or pan over a low heat for about 3 minutes on each side until cooked through and golden brown. (really do make sure your cakes are on a LOW heat as our first batch cooked very quickly on the outside but were still a bit raw on the inside)


5. Leave to cool on a wire rack. Serve on the day of making, if possible.

Verdict? The Welsh Cakes were scrumptious, crumbly and light just like the proper Welsh ones. Plus - they have all disappeared now so something must be right! Also, the chef top made me and my Mum feel like professionals and the kitchen was a delight to work in! I will definitely make again. Come back tomorrow for chocolate chip cookies (as my sister requested!)