Rock Cakes or Marazion Buns

Marazion buns

I wonder if, like me, you keep a scrap book of recipes? My own bright blue one has the words ‘Hip Chick’ on the cover. So, yes, that’s how old it is! It’s now really rather shabby and battered but has cuttings and scribblings from many years past and I love it. It’s rather like a diary in that I can leaf through it and can recall a time when I found a particular recipe in a magazine, perhaps the week before I needed a gorgeous-sounding pudding for a family occasion, cut it out, and stuck it in my blue book ready for action. If it was a success, I would put a tick or remark by it, so that I knew I could use it another day. 

Sadly, my scrap book of recipe memories doesn’t always reveal where I found the original recipe and, like today when I leafed through, to find a suitable sweet offering to take to my daughter Laura in hospital, it was a fairly easy task to decide to bake some Marazion Buns. Now, don’t ask me why they have this name – all I know is that they could originate from Cornwall.  They are rather like Rock Cakes but I have also added a little twist or two of my own to the ingredients. Here’s how I made them:

(The original notes are in ‘ounces’ but I’m sure you can easily convert the amounts into grams.)

6oz spelt flour (or wholemeal if you prefer)

6oz plain flour

2 tsps baking powder

Pinch of salt

½ tsp mixed spice

¼ tsp Ndali organic vanilla powder

6oz butter (or margarine)

6oz golden caster sugar

4oz mixed dried fruit

3oz desiccated coconut

10 glace cherries (chopped)

1 large egg

1 tsp orange extract

Milk to mix

A small quantity of Demerara sugar for topping

Sift and mix flours, baking powder, spice, vanilla and sugar into a large bowl. Rub in butter until crumbly. Stir in mixed dried fruit, cherries and coconut. Whisk egg lightly with orange extract and about a tablespoon of the milk. Stir into dry mix to form a dough – may need a little more milk. Pile 12 or so rocky heaps on a baking parchment covered tray, top with a sprinkling of Demerara sugar, and bake for 15-20 minutes in a pre-heated oven. Gas mark 5 or 190C. Cool on a wire rack. These are best eaten on the day of baking, which is no problem in our house!

Desiccated fruits