6 Nations Bake Off - Wales vs Scotland - Welsh Cake vs Shortbread

So the time of 6 Nations is upon us again, countless hours of rugby watching and pub going on a weekend. Our household is very much split during this tournament - my husband is Welsh, my daughter is (technically) Scottish, and I am English. In honour of this annual celebration of national pride I am drawing inspiration from 2 traditional baked treats; the Welsh Cake and Scottish Shortbread.

Traditional Welsh Cakes

Ingredients

225g plain flour

85g caster sugar

1/2 tsp mixed spice

1/2 tsp baking powder

50g cubed butter

50g cubed lard

50g currants or sultanas

1 egg, beaten

Method

Tip the flour, sugar, mixed spice, baking powder and a pinch of salt into a bowl. Then, with your fingers, rub in the butter and lard until it resembles breadcrumbs. Mix in the currants. Work the egg into the mixture until you have soft dough, adding a splash of milk if it seems a little dry - it should be the same consistency as shortcrust pastry. 

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured work surface to the thickness of your little finger. Cut out rounds using round cutter, re-rolling any trimmings (you can experiment with different shapes if you dont have a round one; to date I've made rounds, hearts, gingerbread men and stars!). Grease a flat griddle pan or heavy frying pan with lard, and place over a medium heat - this is important because if you have the pan too hot the outside with burn and the dough won't cook evenly. 

Cook the Welsh cakes in batches, for about 3 mins each side, until golden brown, crisp and cooked through. Delicious served warm with butter and jam, or simply sprinkled with caster sugar. 

Scottish Stem Ginger Shortbread

Ingredients 

125g butter, room temperature

50g crystallised stem ginger, finely chopped

50g caster sugar

150g plain flour

35g ground rice

2 tsp ground ginger

Method

Preheat the oven to 150˚C. Mix all the ingredients, apart from the stem ginger, together in a mixer until it comes together. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and briefly knead in the stem ginger. Roll out to 1cm thickness; shape into an 18cm square. Put in the fridge for 1 hour to firm up. Cut into 12 fingers.

Bake the shortbread for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and loosen the biscuits from the baking tray. Leave to cool for about 5 minutes, before transferring to a rack to cool completely.

Stained Glass Window Cookies

Now biscuits have always been a bit of a nemesis of mine; namely the baking of said biscuit which is kind of crucial...it very rarely goes to plan...so I have decided, in this case, practice will indeed make perfect. So the recipe itself was pretty straightforward, and doesn't require much more than you will probably have in your kitchen cupboards (with the exception of boiled sweets, these I didn't have).

The result of these biscuits was however a little disappointing - the biscuit itself is rather boring - but nevertheless it is an easy recipe to do with children and the 'stained glass' effect will probably fascinate them. However it has got me thinking on ways to improve the flavour of the recipe so watch this space...

Ingredients (makes approx 20 biscuits depending on your cutter size)

100g unsalted butter (softened at room temperature)
100g caster sugar
1 free range egg (lightly beaten)
275g plain flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
Crushes Boiled Sweets (various colours)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5. Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper. Depending on how reliable your greaseproof paper is I find you may want to double line the tray to prevent the bottoms from burning.

2. Using a electric mixer with a paddle attachment (if not, the old school by hand method works perfectly well as well) cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl until combined.

3. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract, little at a time. Beat until mixture is well combined.

4. Gradually stir in the flour until the mixture comes together as a dough. I say add this gradually as you don't want to make the dough too dry, otherwise your biscuits will come out too dry and hard.

5. Roll out your dough on a lightly floured surface to about 0.5cm thick, then cut into shapes using cookie cutters. Ideally you should use shapes which you have different sizes of, for example I used a 12cm/4½in star and a 4cm/1½in star cutter.

6. Transfer the biscuits to your pre-lined baking sheet. Using your smaller cutter stamp out the centre of each biscuit on the baking tray, making sure you leave a good edge around the outside.

7. Using a rolling pin crush the boiled sweets in their wrappers. If you find this too difficult/messy you can pop a few into a ziploc freezer bag and crush them inside that instead - this is useful if you are making several of the same colour. Completely fill the hole in each biscuit with the crushed sweets.

8. Bake the biscuits for 8-10 minutes or until pale golden brown. Remove from the oven and set aside on the baking tray until they have cooled to allow the boiled sweets to harden. Once they have cooled gently lift the biscuits on to a wire rack with a palette knife.

At this stage you can also ice the biscuits to decorate is you so wish or leave them plain - either way they look good!

If you want to add icing decorations then I find the following works well:

400g icing sugar
3-4 tbsp water
2-3 drops of food colouring or gels (optional, white gives a nice professional looking finish)

Sift the icing sugar into a large mixing bowl and stir in enough water to make a smooth paste. At this stage you can add your desired colouring. Then you are ready to pipe or drizzle on to the biscuits.