Fat Rascals

My sister’s just moved back down south after living in York for 8 years and it’s quite blatantly obvious that my mum and I are more upset about this than her. Basically, we don’t have a valid excuse to go have a Yorkshire jolly anymore. To try and overcome our parting blues we decided to give Fat Rascals a go. You can only get real Rascals at Bettys Tea Rooms but ‘The Great British Book of Baking’ has a lovely recipe. For those who don’t know, Fat Rascals are meant to look like rats, with cherries for eyes and almonds for a mouth…the cherries on ours sort of slid to the side when they were cooking however, so they look more like slightly toothless frogs. No worries though because they tasted delicious, especially still warm from the oven with a little pat of melted butter.

Ingredients

(makes 6 although we doubled the recipe because what’s the point of making just 6?!)

250g self-raising flour

½ tsp ground cinnamon

Pinch grated nutmeg

75g caster sugar

100g unsalted butter, chilled and diced

125g mixed dried fruit

1 medium egg

125ml of double cream

½ tsp lemon juice

To decorate

1 egg, beaten

12 glacé cherries

6 blanched almonds (or we used 3 for each for a smile)

Preheat the oven to 200⁰C/Gas Mark 6. Sift the flour, cinnamon and nutmeg into a large mixing bowl then stir in the sugar.

Add the diced butter and rub it into the flour until the mixture becomes crumble-like.

Stir in the dried fruit using a wooden spoon.

Add the egg.

In a small jug combine the double cream and lemon juice then add to the mixing bowl. Combine everything with a wooden spoon until it forms a firm dough. I found it’s better to add one spoonful of cream mixture at a time, combining in between, to gauge how dry/sticky the mixture is.

Prepare your baking tray with baking parchment. Divide the mixture into 6 equal portions and using lightly floured hands roll the mixture into 6 even balls. Brush the tops with the beaten egg then add 2 cherries for the eyes and almonds to make the mouths.

Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until the cakes are a lovely golden brown on top. Cool on a wire rack and then eat as soon as the kettle’s boiled!