Burn O'Vat Rock Cakes recipe
Burn O’Vat is a beauty spot near Ballater in Aberdeenshire. For many years the tiny tea shop there, now long gone, was well known for its moist, crumbly, lightly spiced rock cakes. For a richer rock cake use the ‘luxury’ type of dried fruit mix, with cherries and apricots as well as raisins, currants, sultanas and chopped candied lemon and orange peel.
Ingredients
- 225 g Self-raising flour
- 0.5 tsp Ground mixed spice
- 85 g Unsalted butter, chilled and diced
- 100 g Mixed dried fruit and peel
- 1 Medium free-range egg
- 2 tbsp Milk
- 1 tbsp Demerara sugar for sprinkling
- 1 Baking tray, greased with butter
- 85 g Golden granulated sugar
Details
- Cuisine: British
- Recipe Type: Snack
- Difficulty: Medium
- Preparation Time: 10 mins
- Cooking Time: 15 mins
- Serves: 10
Step-by-step
- Heat the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas 6.
- Sift the flour and mixed spice into a mixing bowl. Add the diced butter and rub into the flour until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Stir in the sugar and dried fruit with a wooden spoon. In a separate bowl, lightly beat the egg with the milk until combined, then stir just enough into the fruit mixture to bind to a very firm, stiff dough - it's important that the dough holds its shape, but if there are dry crumbs at the bottom of the bowl and the dough won't stick together, add more milk, a teaspoon at a time.
- Divide the dough into 10 and spoon on to the prepared baking tray in heaped peaky mounds (to look like rocks), spaced well apart. Sprinkle with the demerara sugar.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 12 to 15 minutes, or until the cakes are a good golden brown and firm to the touch.
- Transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool. Eat warm or at room temperature, the same day.
Also worth your attention:
The Great British Book of Baking: 120 best-loved recipes from teatime treats to pies and pasties