Flip a Cake

Yum, yum; here at the Oakeley Arms hotel in Snowdonia, we love a good slice of cake whether it’s sponge cake, carrot cake, coffee cake or angel cake, we’re not fussy we love ’em all! But one of our all time favourites is of course the humble Welsh Cake. This simple cake with raisins or sultanas and flavoured with cinnamon or nutmeg is traditionally made on a griddle pan over an open fire, and so are sometimes called griddle scones (or teisen radell or picau maen in Welsh).

These delicious, round little cakes are traditional across the whole of Wales but different regions have their own variations. In South Wales, they are often eaten with jam in the middle, and in North Wales they are sometimes made with extra baking powder to give a bigger rise (symbolic of the high peaks of Snowdonia). But whatever the variety, a good Welsh cake is truly delicious.

Image by zingyyellow on wikicommons

So, imagine our joy when a town just a few miles away from the Oakeley Arms attempted to break the Guinness World Record for making the world’s largest ever Welsh Cake! The Bala Welsh Cake was mixed up by 4 local chefs from the town of Bala on St David’s Day, watched over by adjudicators from the Guinness Book of World Records. The Bala Welsh Cake was a whopping 5ft wide (1.5m) and weighed over 48 pounds. The giant Welsh Cake was cooked on a traditional (but giant!) griddle pan in the main square in Bala on Saturday, and flipped over amid cheers from the on-looking crowd.

The town welcomed visitors from across the country to witness the cooking of the Bala Welsh Cake in what was an action-packed and fun-filled day. The Bala Welsh Cake chefs are just waiting for official confirmation from the Guinness Book of World Records that theirs was indeed a new world record. The record-breaking (hopefully) Welsh Cake was then sliced up and sold with all proceeds going to local charities.

If you missed a slice of the delicious Bala Welsh Cake then why not have a go at making your own? Follow our simple recipe below, straight from the Oakeley kitchen…. yum!

• You need – 200g of self-raising flour, 100g of Welsh salted butter, 1 egg, a handful of raisins, 85g of caster sugar and a splash of milk.
• Method – rub the butter and flour together to form breadcrumbs. Mix in the sugar and raisins and then whisk the egg and stir that in too. The mixture should form a dough ball (add a splash of milk if it’s too dry but don’t make it too sticky…). Roll it out to a thickness of 1/4 of an inch and use a cutter or small glass to cut into round shapes. To cook them rub a heavy griddle pan with some butter and put it onto the heat. When it’s hot and the butter has melted put 3 or 4 (or as many as will fit) onto the griddle and cook for 2-3 minutes each side until they are a lovely golden brown. Repeat until all the cakes are cooked. Sprinkle caster sugar over them while they are still warm.
• Enjoy hot or cold, plain or with a dash of welsh butter. Delicious!

By Vouliagmeni on Wikimedia Commons