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Soul cakes
Makes: 28-30
Prep time: 30 minsTotal time: 
Recipe photograph by Toby Scott
Soul cakes
Based on a traditional treat, these are essentially an enriched spiced fruit biscuit. Traditionally they would have been round, with a cross scored into the top, but we have used a pumpkin- shaped biscuit cutter and added face details for a bit of spooky fun
Makes: 28-30
Prep time: 30 minsTotal time:
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Tamsin Burnett-Hall
Tamsin learned the tricks of the trade from cookery legend Delia Smith. A trusted recipe writer for the magazine for over 25 years, she is now our Cookery Workflow Editor, overseeing testing and editing to ensure that every recipe tastes great, is straightforward to follow and works without fail. In her home kitchen, Tamsin creates fuss-free flavour-packed food for friends and family, with baking being her ultimate form of comfort cooking
See more of Tamsin Burnett-Hall’s recipes
Tamsin Burnett-Hall
Tamsin learned the tricks of the trade from cookery legend Delia Smith. A trusted recipe writer for the magazine for over 25 years, she is now our Cookery Workflow Editor, overseeing testing and editing to ensure that every recipe tastes great, is straightforward to follow and works without fail. In her home kitchen, Tamsin creates fuss-free flavour-packed food for friends and family, with baking being her ultimate form of comfort cooking
See more of Tamsin Burnett-Hall’s recipes
Ingredients
- 300g plain flour
- 2 tsp ground mixed spice
- a good pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
- 150g butter, diced
- 150g caster sugar
- 75g currants
- 2 egg yolks (or 1 whole egg, beaten)
- 2 tbsp milk
- ½ tbsp cider vinegar
- 75g icing sugar, sifted
Step by step
Get ahead
These keep for up to 1 week in an airtight tin.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C, fan 160°C, gas 4. Sift the flour, spices and a good pinch of salt into a mixing bowl. Add the diced butter and rub in until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar and currants.
- Briefly whisk the egg, milk and cider vinegar together until just combined, then stir into the dry ingredients using a table knife. Bring together into a soft but not sticky dough, adding a little more milk if the dough is too dry.
- Roll out on a floured surface to about 5mm thick. Stamp out the soul cakes with a pumpkin cutter (or a 6-7cm round cutter), re-rolling the scraps as needed. Transfer to 2 well-greased baking trays
- Bake for 15-25 minutes until pale golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.
- To decorate, mix the icing sugar with 11⁄2 teaspoons of cold water to give a piping consistency. Spoon into a small piping bag fitted with a writing nozzle, then decorate the biscuits with Jack o’lantern faces in different styles.