Fans of Harry Potter will be aware that Hagrid often makes rock cakes for Harry, Ron and Hermione when they go to visit him. Unlike Hagrid’s, these rock cakes are not literally rock hard and are actually really yummy and easy to make!

First, preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Then you need 200g of self raising flour and 1 teaspoon of baking powder. Sieve them into a mixing bowl if you have a sieve or, if you’re like me, just put them together in a salad bowl!

Then you need 100g of butter. Add it to the bowl and cut into small pieces with a knife. Next, rub the butter into the flour until you get really fine crumbs. Obviously, make sure you’ve washed your hands really well first! [For food tech people- this is an example of shortening which is when you rub the fat into the flour so that the fat molecules coat the flour molecules with a waterproof layer which stops gluten molecules from forming because gluten needs water to form. It’s gluten that gives dough a ‘stretchy’ texture so preventing gluten from forming creates a ‘shorter’, more crumbly texture which is what you want in rock cakes- maybe that’s where Hagrid went wrong!!]

Once you’ve got fine crumbs, wash your hands again to get rid of the mixture. Add in 75 grams of sugar and 100g of raisins and mix together.

Then in a small bowl, mix together one egg and two tablespoons of milk with a fork. Pour the egg mixture into the crumbs mixture and mix together until it comes together. The waterproof fat layer around the flour molecules will mean liquid can’t get to them to form gluten so you should have a soft dough.

Using a spoon, put heaps of the dough onto a baking sheet or, if you don’t have one, greased tin foil on a baking tray. You should get 6-8 rock cakes depending on size. They will expand when cooking so leave space!

Bake for about 20 minutes or until just turning golden brown. Then take them out the oven, put on a cooling rack if you have one or on a plate if you don’t and leave to cool a bit. Then enjoy either on their own or cut in half with butter or jam!

Advertisement