My Favourite Cake! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Round

There is a good reason for this - a round cake cooks more evenly than any other shaped Welsh cake. I inadvertently and disastrously tested this theory once - I couldn't find the round cutters, only the oblong ones - whilst the outside of the cake was cooked to a crisp, the middle was still stodgy. Maybe a better physicist than me can explain this to us - but take my word for it, make your Welsh cakes round!

Answer: Self raising

Gives the cake just that little bit of a "light" texture. Mind you, I used to think "self raisin" flour was a type of dry fruit when I was younger.. and a Daffodil is a "flower" of course! In some parts of Wales, ordinary flour is used with similar ingredients, which results in a flatter, crispier end product - this is known as "Welsh Slab" or "Llechen Gymraeg" - literally translated as "Welsh Slate".

Answer: True

Although different sorts of fat can be used in the mix, the best results undoubtedly come from using butter - ideally, Welsh, salted butter!

Answer: 1

Anything more than one egg, and you're looking at an omelette based Welsh cake! Anything less than one egg and frankly, it's just not a Welsh cake at all!

Answer: Dried Fruit

Dried fruit - ideally sultanas, but I quite like them with raisins - which is a bit of a heresy in some peoples' eyes, but each to his own, I suppose. I was desperate for some fresh Welsh cakes one rainy Sunday, and all I had in the house was raisins - the rest is history!

Answer: Milk

It's milk - but now I've suggested it as an alternative, maybe I should try a little tot of whiskey in my Welsh cakes next time I make them, eh?

Answer: Caster Sugar

Not even I would put lager in my Welsh cakes, and as for chewing gum... You can also dust the cooked cakes with a little caster sugar as soon as they're off the griddle.

Answer: Salt and mixed spices

Dragon's Tooth and Sheep's Claw? What do you think we Celts are? Mystical or something?

Answer: On a griddle or bakestone

It's the smell - when my Mamgu (Grandma) used to cook them for us when we were kids, we could smell them cooking half way down the street. Usually, two to three minutes on each side on a hot greased bakestone will do the trick. It's quite nice though to cook them just a bit longer, till they just start getting burnt - I must stop, I'm salivating too much at the thought of it!

Answer: Pice ar y maen

"Bara lawr" is laverbread - "Teisen Lap" and "Bara Brith" are two other types of cakes from Wales. "Pice ar y maen" literally translated means "Cakes on the (or "from the") stone". A "maen" is a stone. It is likely that the English "pikelets" evolved from the Welsh "pice" - pronounced "Pick-air" in Welsh.

These cakes are divine - and there should be enough information in this quiz for you to go out to the kitchen now, and try them out - within 15 minutes you could be eating one of the finest delicacies on earth. And if you don't have a bakestone, you can get away with cooking them in a frying pan!