Cherry Rock Buns

Sunday 5 January 2014



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As a child I used to devour Enid Blyton books.  I love the ones about the fairies and gnomes and wishing trees . . . but I especially loved the adventure books and the ones about kids in boarding schools with tuck boxes and tea time treats and picnic fare which sounded to me to be exotic.  

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Sausage rolls and pork pies, cherry cakes and ginger beer.  Wobbly blanc manges.   Tinned and potted meat spread onto hugs slabs of homemade bread . . . jam sandwiches, gingernuts, fruit jellies.  Rock cakes.  It was all so deliciously tempting sounding, and I dreamt about what it might be like to gorge myself on such a wonderous feast.  Yes , , , for me it has always been a out the food.

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We didn't have such things at home.  None of our meat came from tins and we were never allowed to gorge ourselves on fruit jellies and sausage rolls or wobbly blanc manges.   We were never allowed to gorge ourselves on anything.  My mother's idea of a treat was an apple.  Healthy yes . . . exotic no.

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Rock Cakes.   Deliciously buttery scone like drop cakes, short and crumbly and reported to be one of Harry Potter's favourite treats.   Stogged full of candied cherries and dried currants.  I use the undyed cherries.  Not as bright, but not as bad, or at least not in my mind.

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Wonderful, fresh out of the oven with a glass of cold milk.  You could split them and spread them with butter, but I like them plain.  They are a beautiful once in a bluemoon treat and whenever I bake them I think of magic wands and indulgent picnics in the woods.

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A girl needs some magic  in her life don't you think?

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*Cherry Rock Buns*
Makes 12


A favourite children's snack.  Quick, easy to make, melt in the mouth buttery good, and stogged full of cherries and currants.  

250g self raising flour (1 3/4 cup)
2 tsp baking powder
125g butter,slightly softened and cut into bits (1/2 cup)
50g of soft light brown sugar (1/4 cup, packed)
100g of candied cherries, quartered (about 1/2 cup)
50g currants (1/3 cup)
1 large free range egg, beaten
2 TBS milk
2 TBS demerara sugar for sprinkling    

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Preheat the oven to 200*C/400*f/ gas mark 6.  Line two baking sheets with baking paper.  Set aside.  

Sift the flour into a bowl along with the baking powder.  Drop in the butter.  Rub the butter in using your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine bread crumbs. Stir in the brown sugar. Beat the egg together with the milk and add to the dry ingredients.  Stir in with a round bladed knife to form a stick dough. If the dough seems too dry, add a bit more milk. Stir in the cherries and currants.  Drop by heaped TBS onto the prepared baking sheets, leaving space between each for spreading.  Sprinkle the tops with demerara sugar.


Bake in the heated oven, one tray at a time, for 15 minutes, turning the trays once during baking.   These are best eaten on the day.   They freeze well however, so you can pack them into an airtight container and just take them out as you want them, reheating them gently in the microwave for about 2 minutes, or packing frozen and wrapped into the lunch bucket.  They will be thawed and perfect for eating by lunch time.

10 comments

  1. they sound so good and your descriptions makes them impossible to resist, I have gained some pounds and i will never lose them coming to visit here, oh well, lol

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  2. Laurie, you do make me smile. lol xxoo

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  3. Kinda sconish?

    :) they look great!
    I could have seen you with a charming tea room..and biscuits..etc..a woman made a great success with one here..

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  4. I love your blog Marie and find all your recipes so tempting. Thanks for sharing. I am a big fan of Enid Blyton and remember the midnight feasts she described :-)

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  5. Funny you should say that Monique, back in Canada I had my own coffee shop. I am afraid I am too lazy now to want to cope with all of that on my own, but you never know.

    Kate, thank you so much. Maybe one day I will do a Enid Blyton Midnight Feast on here. That would be fun!

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  6. I devoured Enid Blyton's books, especially her Famous Five series. Rock cakes were one of the very first things I learned to bake all by myself. Gran gave me the recipe and I was allowed to weigh out everything and boy was I proud when they came out of the oven and we could enjoy them for afternoon tea. So I have a very special affinity for them.

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  7. I enjoyed Enid Blyton books as a child as well, but strangely, do not remember her food descriptions. I do remember being intrigued by references to gingerbeer in the 5 Children and It series, and posset in The Wolves of Willoughby Chase.

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  8. This post transported me to sitting on your bed with you. Two little girls reading an Enid Blyton book and telling each other how grand it would be to have these Rock Cakes right at that moment. The only thing missing would have been the actual cakes to eat right then. Maria, you have a special talent for descriptions ... and food.

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  9. hi
    sorry but when is the brown sugar going to add in?
    cos one of the ingredients stated there is a 50g brown sugar?
    thks

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