Welsh Cakes
Wales's national teatime treat is cooked in a pan, not baked in an oven, and it's been fed to families for generations. Is it a biscuit, a scone or a pancake?
Published
Quick Facts
- Welsh names
- Pice ar y maen ("cakes on the stone"), picau ar y maen and cacennau cri ("griddle cakes")
- Cooked on
- A bakestone or heavy griddle, never in the oven
- Core ingredients
- Flour, butter (or lard), sugar, currants, egg and a little milk
- Usual spice
- Nutmeg or mixed spice
- Shape
- Round, flat and roughly the size of a small saucer, cut with a fluted or plain cutter
- Finishing touch
- A dusting of caster sugar while still warm
- Other names
- Bakestone cakes, griddle cakes, or just "pics" in some parts of Wales
- Associated with
- Teatime, family kitchens and St David's Day on 1 March
The cake that never saw an oven
The first surprise about a Welsh cake is where it was cooked. It never went anywhere near an oven. It was made on a flat, heavy iron bakestone, called a maen or a planc in Welsh, set over the fire. That's where the Welsh names come from. Pice ar y maen means "cakes on the stone", and cacennau cri means "griddle cakes". Today most people use a cast-iron griddle or a heavy frying pan on the hob, but the principle hasn't changed. The bakestone suited kitchens without ovens. A family with a fire and a griddle could make bread, flat cakes and sweet treats. The Welsh cake is one of the sweetest survivors of that way of cooking.
Somewhere between a scone and a biscuit
The dough is closer to shortcrust pastry than to cake batter. Flour is rubbed with butter, sometimes with lard, then mixed with sugar, currants, egg and a splash of milk, plus a pinch of nutmeg or mixed spice. It's rolled out fairly thick, cut into rounds and cooked slowly on a lightly greased griddle. Slow matters. The cakes need a few minutes on each side, until they turn golden-brown and cooked through. Too hot and you get a scorched outside and a raw middle. The result is crumbly at the edges and soft inside, a bit like a scone, a pancake and a shortbread rolled into one. Many cooks sprinkle caster sugar over them straight from the pan, so it sticks to the warm surface.
Butter, jam, or nothing at all?
Ask for the proper way to eat one and you'll start an argument. Plenty of Welsh families say a good Welsh cake needs nothing and should be eaten warm, still carrying the sugar from the pan. Others split one and add butter, which melts straight in. Jam is the more divisive choice. Some enjoy a smear of it, while purists think it spoils the cake. Cream hardly comes into it. The Welsh cake is a pocket-and-picnic food, not a cream tea one, though that hasn't stopped bakers trying. The other split is warm versus cold. Fresh off the griddle they're soft and fragrant. A day later they're firmer and keep well in a tin, which is why they've always been a lunchbox and handbag favourite.
Currants, cherries and chocolate chips
The classic version has currants and nothing else. Over the years, though, cooks have added their own twists. Sultanas, mixed peel, lemon zest, glacé cherries, ginger and chocolate chips all turn up on market stalls and in bakeries. In some kitchens the cakes are thin and biscuity, in others thick and soft. Households argue about how much fat to use and whether lard gives a better flavour than butter. Welsh food writer Bobby Freeman, who published the cookbook First Catch Your Peacock in 1980, helped bring Welsh home cooking to a wider audience, and the Welsh cake sat naturally in that tradition. Market stalls selling them hot from the griddle are still one of the best ways to try one. The smell of spice and sugar on a hot plate is hard to resist.
A national symbol, with a spoonful of sugar
Welsh cakes feature on St David's Day, 1 March, when schools, shops and families make them in bulk. They're sold in supermarkets across Britain now, but the homemade ones are still the benchmark. They also travel well, which has made them a taste of home for Welsh people living away from Wales. A tin of Welsh cakes in the post is one of the more cheerful presents you can give an exile. A good Welsh cake is cheap, simple and quick, and it only needs a griddle and a few minutes. That mix of thrift, patience and sugar explains why it has outlasted so many fashionable bakes.
Notable people
- Bobby Freeman
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