No afternoon tea is complete without them, but how much do you actually know about the humble Welsh cake?
In the newly-published book, Celebrating St. David's Day, and its Welsh sister-version (Gwasg Carreg Gwalch,Â£6.95), Elin Meek introduces the history behind these little teatime delicacies, as well as discussing numerous other aspects of Wales and Welshness.
This scone-like treat is traditionally to be eaten on St David's Day, so why not have a go at baking your own Welsh cakes with the book's easy-to-follow recipe?
If, however, kneading and baking is not your cup of tea, then the colourful volume has plenty of other things to offer as well, including making your own daffodil.
Celebrating St. David's Day is also chock-full of interesting facts about our patron saint, from his life's history to the myths and miracles that are associated with him. The book also offers an insight into the reasons why the daffodil, leek and Red Dragon have all become symbols of Wales; as well as offering a look at traditional costumes, both old and new.
Celebrating St. David's Day is the second volume in the Festival Fun series, and follows the success of the first instalment, Celebrating Halloween.
Myrddin ap Dafydd of Gwasg Carreg Gwalch publishers said, "As a parent myself I feel it is of utmost importance that we offer the younger generation an insight into our traditions, our habits and our histories.
"Our hope is that the Festival Fun series will do this in an interesting and amusing way, and will be something parents and children, or schoolchildren, can do together.
This is the book's recipe for making Welsh cakes:
You will need:
500g self-raising flour 125g butter or margarine 125g vegetable oil 200g sugar 200g currents 2 eggs
Dull 1.Pre-heat the griddle pan on the oven 2.Sieve the self-raising flour into a large bowl 3.Rub the butter or margarine and the vegetable oil into the flour until the consistency is akin to that of breadcrumbs 4.Add the sugar and the currants 5.Make a well in the centre of the mixture. Beat the two eggs, before pouring them into the well. 6.Use a fork to gradually mix it all together. The end result should see the mixture becoming a large ball, which can be lifted clean from the bowl. If you don't want to carry on with the work of rolling the mixture, cutting and baking the Welsh cakes, the ball of dough will keep in the fridge for a day or two. 7.Sprinkle a little flour over the place you'll be rolling the dough. 8.Break the dough in half, more or less, and the roll it out with a rolling pin into a large circle until it's roughly three-quarter centimetre thick. 9.Use small circular cutters to cut the welsh cakes. 10.Carefully place the individual Welsh cakes on the griddle, cooking them for about three minutes either side. Be warned, you'll need to keep a close eye on them to avoid them getting burnt! 11.Leave them to cool, then serve with a sprinkling of sugar. Some like to spread butter on them as well!
Fast facts about Welsh cakes:
Welsh cakes can be traced back in time to one of the earliest forms of baking, where a flatstone, or bakestone, would be placed onto an open fire. This stone was then used as the cooking surface for the Welsh cakes, the equivalent to today's hotplate. The Welsh cake mixture would be placed onto the stone and cooked first on one side and then turned to complete the cooking.
At one time they were often eaten in both cottages and farmhouses alike, and miners would also have them in their lunchboxes.
But regardless of their popularity, the means of cooking them varied from region to region. The most common method was to cook them on a bakestone over an open fire, which is the reason why the Welsh cake is also known as the bakestone or the griddle scone in some areas of Wales. In some parts of Glamorganshire they would be baked in a Dutch oven in front of the fire. These were cakes cut into small, circular shapes thus also giving them the name of round cakes or roun cakes.
Other villages christened them slashers and wheel cakes. These cakes were baked when there was a shortage of bread or when visitors were expected to tea. This is probably the reason why Welsh cakes were often thought of as poor people's food.
Celebrating St. David's Day Elin Meek Gwasg Carreg Gwalch, Ãƒï¿½Ã‚Â£6.95 ISBN: 1-845270-15-0
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