Rock cakes are extremely easy to make and really difficult to mess up, making them a perfect beginner baker recipe. Encourage children to clean up afterwards by making it a race against the cakes. For small children, have them to any spooning and measuring on a baking tray, it will make the clean up easier.
Ingredients: makes 12
200g plain flour
1tsp baking powder (or 200g SR flour and no baking powder)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp mixed spice
75g butter
75g caster sugar
75g mixed dried fruit
1 egg – beaten
2 tbsp milk
Brown sugar for sprinkling
Cooking time 10-15 minutes :: Temp 200°C / 400°F / Gas mark 6
Tie long hair back, wash your hands, put on an apron. Ask an adult to turn on the oven for you. Take out all the equipment you will need:
Big mixing bowl, mixing spoon, over tray, greaseproof paper, measuring spoons, kitchen scales, measuring bowl, sieve.
Sieve together the flour, baking powder, salt and mixed spice. Add the butter. Rub the butter and flour together using your fingertips, until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs.
Add the sugar and mixed fruit and mix together
In a small bowl, beat together the egg and milk.
Add to the rest of the ingredients
Mix well until all the ingredients are combined.
Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper (we used a silicon tray) and make 12, equally spaced dollops. Try to make them the same size so that they cook evenly.
Sprinkle sugar over each of the dollops, it doesn’t matter if they are funny shapes, they will look more like rocks if they are.
Lick fingers and spoon, now wash your hands again.
When the oven is heated to the correct temperature, put the rock cake on the middle shelf, you might need an adult to help you do this.
Set the timer for 10 minutes, ask an adult to help check them after 10 minutes, they should be golden brown, you might need to turn the tray around and put them back in the oven for a few more minutes.
Whilst the cakes are cooking, do the washing up, make it a race, can you finish the washing up before the cakes are finished?
Ask an adult to help take the cakes from the oven when they are a nice golden brown colour and put them on a wire rack to cool. Whilst they are cooling down a bit, wipe the counter and put everything you have used away, the quicker you do it, the quicker you get to eat cake!
When you have finished cleaning up, grab a rock cake and find a nice spot to enjoy eating it.