lovelychaos

This weekend I made some Sedgemoor Easter Cakes to take to my friend who is recovering from a fairly major operation, and hence needs cheering up and lots of healing nourishment.

Traditionally these goodies are made and given away in threes on Easter Sunday. I hope Jesus doesn’t mind me breaking protocol here. This is a recipe that my mum had kept from the swathes of Easter recipes popping up in the weekend magazines a couple of weeks ago, and when I told her I was intending to bake she made sure I made these, by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

They are more biscuits than cakes, I feel (though I appreciate the difficulties in drawing this line having been involved in a jaffa cakes / biscuits argument more than once), similar to Welsh cakes, but more, er, biscuity. Not unlike shortbread. Spicy bits of loveliness! The cakecuits are very easy to make, though the recipe does make a fairly sticky dough if you use big egg so it can be a little hard to cut. I also adjusted the cooking time as Hugh’s time overcooked them a bit (that, or the supergood oven we have). Overall though, very good indeed.

You will need to procure (for between 15 and 20):

225g plain flour
110g caster sugar (I only use golden, because it is pretty)
110g currants
110g butter, cut into cubes
1 egg, lightly beaten (medium will be just dandy)
2 tbsp brandy
1 tsp vanilla essence (I use extract as I like it more)
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp mixed spice
A grating of whole nutmeg
Pinch of salt
To glaze – 75g icing sugar and 2 tbsp milk

First, soak the currants in the brandy and vanilla in a bowl. Sieve the flour, spices and salt together into a mixing bowl, then rub the butter in until it looks like a fine crumble. Stir in the sugar into this vigorously til it’s all nicely mixed. Tip in the soaked currants and any liquid, and add the beaten egg. Mix it all up until it has just come together, then turn out onto a floured worktop and knead it together (be gentle!). When it’s become a round ball of lovely doughiness (won’t be long), put it into the fridge to chill for 15 mins.

Get it out and roll it out on your freshly floured worktop. It should be pretty thick, 0.5cm at the very least, I’d favour the fat side of 0.75 cm. Cut out the cakes using a cookie cutter (about 6cm) – round works best, this stuff doesn’t take too well to shapes (dough is a bit too sticky and the currants have a tendency to fall out of the corners). Put them onto a baking tray covered with paper, and shove em in the oven for 15 mins at 180. (I amended this to 15 at 170 for my superoven. Hugh says 16-20 mins at 180, which I still think is too much).

While they’re cooking, mix up the glaze with icing sugar and milk. Glaze the cakes a little while they are still warm, and add more once they have cooled. Or just sprinkle with sugar. Eat a few immediately, then tie the others into bundles of three, and present them to the people you like a lot.