Soul Cakes from Shropshire

5 from 1 vote

Soul cakes are a very British treat traditionally served during Halloween, All Saints Day and All Souls Day. Simple, sweet, delicately spiced and packed with juicy currants this recipe for soul cakes from Shropshire is quick and easy.

Prep Time20

Cook Time15

Total Time35

Course: Baked Goods

Cuisine: British, English, Midlands Food, Regional

Diet: Vegetarian

Servings:

Calories: 155kcal

Author: Jane Coupland

Ingredients

300 g Plain flour all-purpose
120 g Butter softened
120 g Caster sugar plus extra for sprinkling
75 g Currants
2 Egg yolks large, free-range
1½ teaspoons Baking powder
¾ teaspoon Mixed spice
¼ teaspoon Ground ginger
4 tablespoons Milk cow's milk, almond milk or oat milk
⅛ teaspoon Salt

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 180C/ 350F/ GM 4 and line two baking sheets with baking parchment.
Use electric beaters to cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until light and fluffy (around 2 minutes).
Add the egg yolks and beat well.
Sieve half of the flour into the bowl along with all of the mixed spice, ginger and salt. Stir in using a large metal spoon.
Now mix in the milk to loosen the dough.
Sieve the remaining flour into the bowl, add the currants and mix in. Keep on mixing until no streaks of flour remain. The dough should be fairly firm.
Roll the dough out on a floured worktop to around ½cm thickness then use a 7cm cutter to punch out your soul cakes. Reroll the dough once to enable more cakes to be cut out. Aim for 18-20 cakes.
Prick each cake all over with a fork then cut a deep cross into the top of each one using a blunt knife.
Transfer to lined baking sheets and cook for 15 minutes, turning halfway through the cooking time to ensure they bake evenly. (Optional: use the blunt knife to recut the crosses at this stage if they are closing up.)
When lightly golden transfer to a cooling rack, sprinkle with caster sugar and leave to cool completely.

Notes

Whether or not to use a straight-sided or fluted cutter is entirely up to you. I went with straight-sided, but I’m not going to judge you for going down the fancy route.
When it comes to cutting the crosses, you may prefer to transfer the cut-out soul cakes onto the baking sheets before doing this. They can be fiddly to transfer once cut.
Do take care to cut the crosses deeply (you can even gently wiggle the knife from side to side to widen the cut) but don’t go all the way through the dough.
Although traditional recipes do not suggest doing so, I also found that recutting the cross in the part-baked dough at the halfway point of baking ensured that the cross was nicely pronounced. This step is not essential though.
If your baking sheets are on different shelves in the oven swap them over at the halfway stage of cooking (at the same time that you rotate the baking sheets). Again, this will help ensure the entire batch cooks evenly.
To make gluten-free soul cakes replace the regular plain flour with a suitable gluten-free alternative.

How to store soul cakes

Let them cool completely then store in an airtight tin or jar at room temperature for up to three days. I love using a Kilner clip-top jar for storing bakes such as these soul cakes. It just seems to keep them ultra-fresh.

They can also be frozen for up to 2 months. Just pop into freezer bags once cold, label and drop into the freezer. Defrost for several hours at room temperature before consuming.

Nutrition