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Soul cakes
Makes 28-30 | prep 30 mins | total time
Soul cakes
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Makes 28-30 | prep 30 mins | total time
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
Rate
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.