Traditional Welsh Cakes Recipe [St. David's Day]

Our Traditional Welsh Cakes Recipe is an easy teatime treat that combines the convenience of a pancake, with the chewy deliciousness of a cookie or warm scone. A wonderful way to celebrate St. David's Day – hot off the bakestone skillet or as a sweet feature on your DIY Ultimate Bagel Bar Brunch board.

How would you like a piping hot little Welsh cake straight from the griddle? We bet you can’t resist! During the photo shoot for this recipe, we somehow managed to eat 12 little tea cakes. Are you shocked or laughing? After all, we had to get that perfect bite shot! (smiling)

Thank goodness this recipe makes between 40-42 little individual cake servings. There were plenty left for the kid’s lunches and even enough to share with the neighbors.

Traditional Welsh Cakes Recipe

When you take your first bite of a traditional Welsh cake, you will notice the soft chewiness and the tender melt-in-your-mouth delicious cake inside. Since these little Welsh treats are cooked on the stove top, they have the appearance of a very thick (but small) pancake. They are smooth on the top and bottom and puffed up around the edges.

Their texture is between a pancake, scone or maybe even a chewy cookie. Bursting with delicious spices of cinnamon, nutmeg and tender raisins. You can eat these tea cakes at room temperature, but they are best served hot off the skillet dusted with a little sugar. All we can say is that they are addictive!

Why Are They Called Welsh Cakes?

This traditional Welsh cake recipe originated in Wales, a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Traditionally, these little teatime treats were baked in a bakestone over an open fire. They are called Welsh cakes because they inspired by the Welsh bakestone. According to Wikipedia, a Welsh bakestone is a type of flat griddle, sometimes called a planc.  It looks very similar to an iron skillet, but its flat.

Welsh cakes are also sometimes referred to as Griddle Cakes, Welsh Tea Cakes or Welsh Miner Cakes. Have we sparked your interest on why these delicious treats are called miner cakes?  Did you know that Wales is well known for its agriculture and mining?

Back in the day, these little Welsh cakes were made by the lady of the house for teatime and the kid’s lunches. Because they were so portable, the miners would stuff a few in their pockets to give them some energy to get through their grueling workday. That is why they are sometimes referred to as Welsh Miner Cakes.

Ingredients

Simple staples are all you will need for this recipe. NO LARD is used in this recipe.  You probably have everything in your house to make these little delicious tea cakes right now. We have included both metric and imperial measurements in the recipe directions below for you.

How To Make Griddle Cakes From Scratch?

Making traditional welsh cake recipe dough is easier than you think. It is much like a short crust pastry dough. Sift flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg in a bowl. Add sugar and mix. Then, add the cold butter. Either use your fingers or a pastry device to cut in the butter until it looks like little grains of sand.

Add eggs, raisins and mix together. Next, add enough almond milk or dairy of choice just until it sticks together like a pastry dough and form into a ball. Do not overwork the dough as this can make the pastry dough tough.

Next, roll out, cut out and get ready cook the Welsh cakes on the griddle or in a frying pan. The dough may slightly crack when rolling out but that is okay.

You do not need a special pan, griddle or even an iron skillet to make these little teatime treats. All you need is a large frying pan and just a little bit of oil spray to prevent sticking. We set our stove top to 3-4 and it takes about 3-4 minutes on each side until they are golden brown and cooked through.

Next, our favorite part…Eating them!

Cooking Hacks

• Sift your flours and additions to keep the biscuit light and delicious.
• Use REAL COLD butter so you can cut it in. We use our fingers or a pastry cutter to perform this task. It will look like grains of sands when you are done.
• You will need to add a little milk or dairy free alternative to get to the consistency of a short crust pastry dough. If you don’t, your little cakes might be a little dry.
• Don’t overwork the dough as it will make the pastry tough.
• Just gather dough until it sticks together. It may still crack a little bit but that is okay. You just want enough milk or milk alternative just until it sticks together so you can roll it out.
• Make sure to flour your board, rolling pin and cake cutter well so that it does not stick.
• We used a little 6.5 cm or 2 and ¾ inch antique cookie cutter to make our little griddle cakes. You can also use a plastic cup to make your little griddle cakes.
• As these cakes have butter in them, they do not need much oil to prevent sticking in the pan. We used just a little spray oil.
• Our stovetop burner was set on gas 3-4 level and it takes between 3 to 4 minutes on each side to get golden brown and cook fully through. If your cakes are getting too brown quickly, turn down the heat. If they are not completely golden after 3-4 minutes, then turn up the heat slightly.
• Do not overcrowd the pan, griddle or skillet as this makes it difficult to flip the cakes.
• If you have a griddle or iron skillet, these works fantastic. We cooked our Welsh cakes in a large non-stick skillet, and it worked perfectly.

How to Serve Welsh Tea Cakes?

These delightful cakes are such a fun portable treat. Perfect for brunch, breakfast, St. David’s Day, afternoon tea, a Mother’s Day treat, bridal showers, baby showers or just any day you need something a little special.

We like to eat these delicious cakes plain but also enjoy them with a little slather of our Apricot Freezer Jam Recipe, butter, honey or Strawberry Rhubarb Refrigerator Jam. Easy enough to just eat in your hands or decadent enough to eat with garnish berries and Homemade Coconut Whipped Cream.

These little teatime treats are best served hot off the griddle.  However, these cakes can also be microwaved for about 20-30 seconds or heated up in the toaster just before serving.

St. David's Day History

Now most everyone has heard of St. Patrick’s Day.  We know St. Patrick is from Ireland. ON St. Patrick’s Day we wear our green clothes, drink green beer and celebrate Irish traditions that are well known around the world. Less is known about St. David.

St. David was born sometime in the middle of the 6th century in the year 542, in Pembrokeshire, South Wales.  This makes St. David the only one of the British Saints to be patron of his home country. St. David was also known as Dewi Sant. He was a Celtic monk, abbot and bishop who spread the word of Christianity across Wales.

A famous story about Saint David tells how he was preaching to a huge crowd and the ground is said to have risen up, so that he was standing on a hill and everyone had a better chance of hearing him. He was known as a powerful orator and many legends grew up about miraculous events around him.

St. David died on March 1st in 589 AD and was later canonized in 1120.  His feast has been celebrated on the anniversary of his death ever since. An important part of the observations of St. David’s Day is to enjoy traditional welsh cakes and gather with friends.

Ways to Celebrate St. David’s Day

There are many St. David’s Day customs and traditions to be enjoyed by all. For our Welsh friends, rugby played an important part of their celebrations.  Playing rugby in a small apartment in Japan or Hong Kong is out of the question, so instead, one of our friends shared with us the story behind the Welsh Heart (Love) Spoons and the tribute to their rugby teams.

So far as I can recall, Welsh heart spoons have the tradition of being gifted during weddings or other significant joyous events. Each carving has distinct meanings and sentiment to those it is passed on to and is cherished by the family or team it is given to. The Welsh Heart Spoons are carved from one piece of wood and display the carver's skill.

The carver uses nothing more than a knife, usually a small pocket-knife. The handle received his full attention and skills, eventually being carved with piercings, relief, fretwork, or all three woodcarving techniques. Wooden chains, swivels, balls within chains and rings displayed even greater skills, as the carvers figured out how to make these from one piece of wood.

Frequent Asked Questions

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