Rock Cakes
This British dessert builds self-raising flour, caster sugar and baking powder into a proper meal you can have ready in about 55 minutes. Below: the ingredients split into pantry staples and a quick shopping list, a built-in serving scaler, and the method in 6 steps.
You'll mainly reach for oven and baking tray. At easy difficulty across 6 steps, it's a good one for a busy evening. As written, it's meat-free.
What you'll need
Shopping list (1)
Pantry staples (you likely have these)
🔁 Unit converter
How to make it
- Preheat oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4 and line a baking tray with baking parchment.
- Mix the flour, sugar and baking powder in a bowl and rub in the cubed butter until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs, then mix in the dried fruit.
- In a clean bowl, beat the egg and milk together with the vanilla extract.
- Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients and stir with a spoon until the mixture just comes together as a thick, lumpy dough. Add a teaspoon more milk if you really need it to make the mixture stick together.
- Place golfball-sized spoons of the mixture onto the prepared baking tray. Leave space between them as they will flatten and spread out to double their size during baking.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes, until golden-brown. Remove from the oven, allow to cool for a couple of minutes then turn them out onto a wire rack to cool.
You'll use: Oven · Baking tray
Watch how it's made
Hosted on YouTube — pressing play loads content from YouTube.
Ingredient substitutions
- Self-raising Flour
- 1 cup plain flour + 1½ tsp baking powder + ¼ tsp salt
- Butter
- olive oil (¾ the amount) · coconut oil · margarine
- Eggs
- ¼ cup unsweetened applesauce (baking) · 1 tbsp ground flax + 3 tbsp water per egg
- Milk
- any unsweetened plant milk · ½ cup evaporated milk + ½ cup water
What to serve with Rock Cakes
- Smoky Lentil Chili with Squash Vegetarian
- Fish pie Seafood
- Beef Wellington Beef
- Toad In The Hole Pork
Tips & common questions
How long does Rock Cakes take to make?
About 55 minutes from start to finish — an estimate based on the 6 steps and 8 ingredients. Times vary with your kitchen and how much prep you do ahead.
What can I use instead of self-raising flour?
Try 1 cup plain flour + 1½ tsp baking powder + ¼ tsp salt. See the substitutions section above for more swaps.
Can I scale this recipe up or down?
Yes — use the servings control above the ingredients and every quantity rescales automatically (fractions included). Cooking times stay roughly the same; very large batches may need a little longer.
Is Rock Cakes vegetarian?
Its ingredients contain no meat or fish, so it's suitable for vegetarians. Check any cheeses for animal rennet if that matters to you.
Related recipes
Recipe data for Rock Cakes via TheMealDB (open database). ▶ Video. Original source. Consomee adds the scaler, ingredient tools, timing and structure — how we source recipes.