Mary Berry Rock Cakes Recipe

This Mary Berry rock cakes recipe rubs butter into spiced self-raising flour, then stirs in sultanas and demerara before binding it with egg and milk. And the batch of 12 from her Classic cookbook takes about 30 minutes, at roughly 180 calories a cake.

In her Classic cookbook, Mary says these old-fashioned bakes “should be dry and crumbly and not too sweet”, and they remind her of her childhood. But unlike her traditional recipe, this version adds mixed spice and uses sultanas and demerara instead of mixed fruit, currants and granulated sugar.

The dough is mixed with a round-ended knife until light and airy, then spooned or blobbed onto the sheet in mounds. So the mounds stay rough rather than smoothed, then bake for 12 to 15 minutes until risen and lightly golden brown.

Mary Berry Rock Cakes Recipe

Recipe by Pinch Perfect

5.0 from 1 vote

Course: SnackCuisine: BritishDifficulty: Easy

Servings

12

servings

Prep time

15

minutes

Cooking time

15

minutes

Calories

180

kcal

Total time

30

minutes

A no-fuss bake from Mary Berry’s BBC series, where egg and milk are stirred into spiced, buttery crumbs with a knife. Then spoonfuls go well apart on a lined sheet with extra demerara on top, and they’re best eaten the same day.

Ingredients

• 225g (8oz) self-raising flour

• 2 tsp baking powder

• 1 tsp ground mixed spice

• 100g (4oz) butter, softened

• 75g (3oz) demerara sugar, plus extra for sprinkling

• 75g (3oz) sultanas

• 1 large egg, beaten

• 3 tbsp milk

Directions

• Heat the oven: Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/Gas 6 and line a large baking sheet with baking paper.
• Rub in the butter: Measure the flour, baking powder, mixed spice and butter into a large bowl. Then rub the butter in with your fingertips until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs.
• Add the sugar and fruit: Stir in the demerara sugar and sultanas, and mix well.
• Mix the dough: Beat the egg and milk together in a jug, then pour into a well in the middle of the dry ingredients. And mix with a round-ended knife into a light, airy dough.
• Shape: Spoon or blob the mixture onto the baking sheet in 12 mounds, spaced well apart. Then sprinkle a little extra demerara over the tops.
• Bake: Bake for 12 to 15 minutes until risen and lightly golden brown. Then cool on a wire rack before serving.

FAQs

Why do rock cakes need baking powder as well as self-raising flour?

In her revised Baking Bible Mary explains that for scones and rock cakes she adds extra baking powder “for a good rise”. So the 2 teaspoons on top of the self-raising flour give the mounds their extra lift, and I wouldn’t leave them out.

But she also warns that with too much baking powder a cake “will rise at first and then collapse”, so I measure level teaspoons.

Can you make rock cakes with plain flour?

Yes, and her Classic book gives the swap: add 2 to 3 teaspoons of baking powder to every 200g of plain flour. For the 225g here I’d use the low end, about 2¼ teaspoons by my maths, on top of the 2 the recipe already uses.

How is the old-fashioned version different?

Her traditional rock cakes in the Baking Bible use 100g of mixed dried fruit and 50g of currants, with just 50g of granulated sugar. So they have twice the fruit but no spice and less sugar in the mix, while the demerara goes on top only.

Then about 1 tablespoon of milk binds it, instead of 3 in the Classic recipe. And an almost identical version sits in her Ultimate Cake Book, beside her simple fairy cakes.

Can you make rock cakes with cherries?

Yes, because her 100 Sweet Treats and Puds has a spiced cherry version with 150g of glacé cherries, rinsed, dried and quartered. Then a teaspoon of mixed spice goes in with the cherries, which replace the mixed fruit and currants of her traditional batch.

And if you’d rather a fruity bake that keeps for days, her easy tea loaf is the better choice for the tin.

Can you freeze rock cakes?

Yes, and freezing matters here, because her Classic book says the low amount of butter means rock cakes don’t keep well beyond the day. And in the Baking Bible she suggests baking 2 batches and freezing the extras, ready for when friends drop in.

I pack cooled ones into freezer bags, then refresh them in a moderate oven once defrosted, just as she does with her very best scones.