Sasta Oiche Shamhna (Happy Halloween) 'Rock Cakes'

Rock cakes are great fun for children to make at Halloween as they produce perfect bite-sized cakes

Ingredients

225g/8oz self-raising flour

• 75g/2½oz caster sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 125g/4½oz unsalted butter, cut into cubes
• 150g/5½oz dried fruit (raisins, sultanas or currants)
• 1 free-range egg
• 1 tbsp milk
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4. Line a large baking tray with baking paper (use two trays if yours are smaller).
2. Mix the flour, sugar and baking powder in a bowl and rub in the cubed butter until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs, then mix in the dried fruit.
3. In a clean bowl, beat the egg, milk and vanilla extract together.
4. Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients and stir with a spoon until the mixture just comes together as a thick, lumpy dough. Add a teaspoon more milk if you need it to make the mixture stick together.
5. Place spoonfuls of the mixture onto the prepared baking tray. Leave space between them as they will flatten and spread out to double their size during baking.
6. Bake for 15–20 minutes, until golden-brown. Allow to cool for a couple of minutes, then turn them out onto a wire rack to cool. Best eaten while still warm.

Recipe tips:

The texture should be a thick, lumpy dough - don’t be tempted to add too much liquid. Rock cake dough should be stiffer than scone dough.

Chocolate chips can be used in place of the dried fruit.

For a sweet crunchy finish, sprinkle the rock cakes with demerara sugar before baking.

Freshen up slighly stale rock cakes by gently heating in a low oven for about 5 minutes.

Source: BBC Good Foods

Baked Goods, Bread, Cake, Family Classics, Halloween