Rock Cakes

Grandma's Rock Cakes

Rock cakes were a staple item during the many holidays we spent at Lynn Avis, the small-holding where my grandparents lived. Lynn Avis was to all the grandchildren a sanctuary from the rough-and-tumble of everyday life and the vicissitudes of schooling in particular. Even now, many years after it has been sold, we had a family gathering this last Saturday, to remember the Spirit of Lynn Avis. I asked everyone to bring and share food that they recalled from this time. My cousin Janet brought little fairy cakes, with each child's initial on it, remembering how so often we'd be greeted at the kitchen door by grandma who'd tell us to run in and find our own special cup-cake, individually coloured and inscribed with our very own name. Of course, the table was also laden with ginger nut biscuits and apple crumble, amongst other goodies. However, my cousin Lloyd specifically asked me to bake: "Rock cakes! The definitive theft-item between meals at Lynn Avis." Hence I felt it necessary to upload and share the recipe with you too.

Grandma always baked a large batch of biscuits before our long summer holidays of December began. From plain biscuits to crispy more exotic ginger biscuits to the lovely flower-like sugar biscuits with tiny, sticky cherries in the middle my mum induced her to make (having bought a biscuit press), to the chunky peanut butter biscuits my other granny loved - all were baked in advance and stored in a special large round tin. Our cousins in particular (though my brother Piers was also a large culprit in this regard), used to indulge in the pastime of running along the passage from the front door, taking a sharp right past the curtain that served as cupboard door, rifling the big round tin of its contents, then ducking through the door of the spare bedroom and out through the window, clutching their stash in one hand, while with the other they would vault over the windowsill. Sometimes Grandma would come out clucking from the kitchen, as if to intercept them upon hearing the patter of feet and the contents of the tin disturbed, but then she’d stop, give up, wave one hand in the air, angrily and dismissively, and stomp back into the kitchen, muttering about hollow legs and manners and how those children can EAT!

Grandma was a wonderful baker, but her hand-written recipe book is remarkably scant, comprised mainly of those few recipes that were not in the old, falling-apart Royal Baking Powder or Approved Recipes of the Women’s Institute, in which I managed to locate this recipe. I find these old favourites often still the best, tried and tested and true. They are also, remarkably simple from an ingredient point of view. I do find so many recent cake recipes quite elaborate and complicated in terms of ingredients. There is something very satisfying about going back to basics in food making.

Rock Cake Recipe

625 grams flour (5 cups)

230 grams butter (1 cup) - if you can, use ½ butter and ½ lard

200 grams granulated sugar (1 cup)

255 grams raisins or sultanas (1 ½ cups)

3 eggs

1 ½ tsp lemon rind (optional)

1 teaspoon mixed spice

1 teaspoon cinnamon

3 level teaspoons baking powder

Pinch of salt

Pre-heat oven to 180 °C, 350 °F, gas mark 4

Soak raisins in hot water, drain and dry, otherwise they tend to be hard and brittle and bitter. Rub butter into flour. As with pastry, grating the butter is good, if it is a little soft, you can put into the freezer for a few minutes to harden. The final texture you are looking for is that of rubble. Add lemon rind, spice, salt, baking powder and sugar. Then add beaten eggs, stirring final mixture with fork, and if necessary a little milk.

In fact, this is a perfect recipe to make with a young child, since really, you do want to undertake everything by hand, it will work best that way. Never overwork your pastry, which means that, for this, hand-rubbing the butter and a short stir with a fork to bind it all together is all you need.

Drop spoonfuls of mixture, using two spoons – one full of gooey mixture, one to scrape goo off spoon, onto a greased pan or baking parchment. Do bear in mind the fact that they may spread a bit, so leave room in between them for growth. Bake until done – probably about 25 minutes.

They should be brown on top and underneath. 

The perfect snack to fill in the gap between breakfast and lunch