An Easy Rock Cakes Recipe

This easy Rock Cakes recipe makes gorgeous little rock cakes, satisfying little sweet treats, perfect for an afternoon snack.  Crumbly, sweet, not quite a cake, not quite a bread, they get their name from resembling craggy little rocks. They may look a little rustic and homespun but be confident though that they’ll be soft and wonderful.

This recipe can take quite a lot of punishment, so it’s good to make with children. So, if you’re ever short of things to do on a rainy day… this may be the perfect thing.

Gather up your ingredients and let’s get baking. Fill the kitchen with the inviting aroma of homemade goodness.

Rock Cake Ingredients

These everyday ingredients are mixed together to make a really simple dough then formed into little craggy shapes and baked in the oven. Really simple little sweet buns to make an afternoon sweet treat.

Flour: I use half and half white and wholemeal self-raising flours in this recipe as I feel that this gives the rock cakes a nice interesting texture. All white or all wholemeal flour will work just as well.

If you only have plain flour (all-purpose flour) in the house then simply add 2 teaspoons of baking power to provide a little lift and they will still be a melt-in-the-mouth bite of loveliness.

Sugar: Caster sugar works well in this recipe but I use sometimes use muscovado sugar for the depth of flavour it adds – a kind of caramelish taste. Either works well.

Dried fruit: I generally use raisins but sultanas are good too and if I’m feeling adventurous I use dried apricots or dried cranberries. So, feel free to mix up your dried fruit a little.

Eggs: A fresh, medium sized egg works well here but I’ve also made them using a flax egg. The result is just as good.

Butter or margarine? I use a plant-based margarine in my baking and love the results. These, however, do work well made with butter, so grab your favourite baking fat and start cooking.

Curious about other variations to the main recipe?

Making this Rock Cakes Recipe

This super easy Rock Cake recipe uses a rubbing-in method, fat into flour, which is quite simple.

Step 1 is to heat up your oven to 190 ^oC/Gas 5/170^oC Fan and then get on with making the rock cakes.

To begin, measure out your flours and margarine or butter. (See notes above.) Rub the fat into the flour until you achieve a nice breadcrumb-like texture. I like to start this process with a fork as I’m really not that fond of the feeling of margarine sticking to your fingers whilst trying hard to get it mix with the flour. If I was being technical I’d say that by starting off by using a fork you are also keeping the ingredients from being melted by the warmth of your hands, which means you end up with a lighter Rock cake. I’ll try that reason next time.

Once you have a nice crumbly texture, add and stir in the sugar and the dried fruit. Then add the beaten egg or flax egg. Mix to bring everything together to a soft, crumbly dough. It may take a little patience to ensure that all the mixture comes together but it will happen. You may need to use your hands at the stage but be careful not to overwork the dough. You want a little craggy personality with these cakes.

Divide this mixture into 8 pieces and place on a greased or lined baking tray.

Place the irregularly shaped balls a little apart as they will spread during cooking.

Bake for approximately 15 – 20 minutes until they take on a pleasing golden brown colour. Leave on the baking tray to cook for about 5 – 10 minutes and then move them onto a cooling rack until they are cool.

Storing Rock Cakes

These rock cakes will keep for up to 3 days in an airtight container. (They may have been eaten long before this though.)

They will also freeze successfuly (cooked) for up to 3 months. Defrost thoroughly before eating.

You can also freeze the dough (for about 2 months) and bake from frozen. It helps to freeze the dough in the spooned out shape of the buns. Then you can just place them on a baking tray and bake. Bake at the same temperature as you would the ‘fresh’ dough and cook for the same length of time.

Variations to the Rock cakes recipe

There are a number of things that you can do to this recipe to ring the changes to these fruity buns and below are a few of the ones that I’ve tried and that we’ve all enjoyed.

Add a little orange zest and a teaspoon of cinnamon to the original recipe for a lovely deep warming flavour.

You may substitute a 100g dates, 75g apricots for the raisins and add 1 teaspoon of dried ginger for a warm and spicy variation.

Other flours: You may use all white flour, all wholemeal flour or a combination of the two but you need a combined total of 200g of flour to be successful. If you use plain flour however, you will need to add 2 teaspoons of baking power to compensate for the lack of raising agent in the flour. Spelt flour is another lovely flavoursome flour to use.

Flax eggs or fleggs also work well in this recipe. The end result is a little more crumbly but definitely just as delicious.

Is this Recipe suitable for Vegans?

• Substitute a flax egg for the egg.
  • Use a flax egg (1 tablespoon of ground flax seeds to 3 tablespoons of water. Allow it to thicken about 10 minutes before using.)The finished texture of the buns is a little crumblier but quite delicious. I’ve made them this way many times.
• Substitute the butter for a suitable margarine. Use non-dairy margarine to replace the butter. It will say on the tub if it is vegan friendly and whether or not it can be used for baking. Again, this is my preferred way of making them so I know that this will be successful.

If you like this then you may like….

Other small and simple to make cakes…

• Vegan Blueberry Muffins
• Lemon and Poppy seed Muffins
• Baked Cinnamon Donuts Recipe
• Double Chocolate Chip Muffins

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