Welsh Cakes (Pice ar y maen)

This recipe is my fail safe. Every time it produces beautiful little griddle cakes. And today, I didn’t need anything else to go wrong (but luckily I only came away with a £40 vet bill that proves that cats don’t always land on their feet). Everything is mixed together by hand, so no need to be scraping bits of dough out of the Kitchenaid attachments and they are cooked in a dry frying pan so no waiting for the oven to preheat. They keep well in an airtight container and can be topped with anything, sugar mixed with mixed spice, honey, butter, jam…

Ingredients

250gr self raising flour

125gr butter (the recipe I inherited calls for half butter and half lard, I like it better with butter though)

1 handful of sultanas (about 70-80gr)

80gr caster sugar

1 egg

2 pinches of mixed spice

1, Rub the butter into the flour and mix in the mixed spice.

2, Add in the sugar and sultanas and mix well.

3, Mix in the eggs, first with a fork but then get your hands in there and form it into a dough

4, Turn it out onto a well floured surface and roll out to about half a centimetre thick. Cut out little rounds with a pastry cutter. I used a one with a fluted edge but press down hard to cut through any sultanas.

5, Heat a heavy based non stick frying pan to a medium heat and place in as many as you can fit bearing in mind you will need to flip them over.

6, Brown evenly on each side and transfer them onto a cooling rack as they will need to be cooked in batches.

For the record, this is the cat who doesn't always land on her feet. Her little sister however is made of rubber and springs and tiggers...