FAT RASCAL RECIPE

December 17, 2024

Fat Rascals are as Yorkshire as fruit cake and Wensleydale cheese. Which is why a southerner like Harry would be slightly baffled as to what they actually are. In truth, they’re similar to rock cakes – a staple of my childhood and probably lots of other childhoods of Brits who grew up in the1970s and 80s. I was surprised at how many recipes were out there online, considering how much of a local speciality Fat Rascals are. Once again, I went with a good ol’ BBC version. I mean, what else do I pay my TV license for 🙂

Ingredients

175g plain flour

175g self-raising flour

175g cold butter, cut into cubes

1 tsp baking powder

120g caster sugar

175g mixed dried fruit

1 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp nutmeg

1 orange, zested

1 lemon, zested

2 eggs, beaten

1-2 tbsp milk

To decorate

18 blanched almonds

3 glacé cherries, halved

Method

STEP 1

Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Line a large baking sheet with baking parchment. Put the flours and butter in a food processor and blitz until you have a texture like fine breadcrumbs (you can also do this by hand by rubbing the butter into the flour). Tip into a large bowl and stir in the baking powder, sugar, mixed dried fruit, cinnamon, nutmeg, orange and lemon zest, and a pinch of salt.

STEP 2

Mix to combine everything, then stir in all but 1½ tbsp beaten egg. Bring together into a ball of dough – if it’s too dry then mix in 1-2 tbsp milk. You should have a soft dough, similar to a scone dough. Divide the dough into 6 and press each piece into a fat disc that’s around 3-4cm thick. Put the rounds onto the baking tray and then glaze with the remaining egg. Put 2 pieces of cherry on top to resemble eyes and horizontally line up 3 blanched almonds a centimetre down from the cherries to resemble a mouth. Bake in the oven for 15-20 mins until cooked through. You can tap on the bottom and they should sound hollow.

Verdict

Yum. Easy to make and easy to eat! I ended up cooking them for longer than recommended in
the recipe, so they are a bit harder than they should be. In future, I’ll use a skewer to see if they’re done, rather than tapping the bottom. And I also placed the almonds in the wrong way, so they look a bit different to the official Betty’s cakes. But still delicious when enjoyed with a cup of Yorkshire tea and good book 😏