Teisen Radell

A Happy Saint David's day to all.

It's the first day of March and Welsh people all over the world are celebrating St David's Day, this may well be a rather uproariuos affair, it might on the other hand only involve tucking into a simple but delicious dish, Welsh cakes. Depending on what part of Wales you come from, these little cakes cooked on a griddle have different names, in my family they are known as Teisen Radell, teisen being the word for cake and radell being the word for the heavy flat cast iron griddle on which they are cooked.

For my recipe you will need,
160g of Self Raising Flour + 1 teaspoon of baking powder
50g of unsalted butter and more to spread on top
70g of currants (I used dried blueberries)
40g of caster sugar
1/4 teaspoon of mixed spice
Milk at least 2 tablespoons, possibly a little more.


Begin by rubbing the chilled butter into the flour, baking powder, spice and sugar, if you do this in the food processor as I do, pulse only until the butter is reduced to pea size pieces. Add the dried fruit and sufficient milk to bring together into a soft dough. Add a tablespoon of milk at a time so as not to make the mixture too soft.
Roll out the dough on a well floured surface and cut out circles. The mixture can be brought together to roll out a second and third time, but try to avoid over working the dough.
Heat up either a heavy flat cast iron griddle or heavy based frying pan on a low heat and cook each cake for a couple of minutes each side until golden brown. Some people advocate dusting with sugar, we never did in my family, but being dairy farmers, we did spread a small amount of butter on each one. They can be eaten cold within a few hours of cooking but are at their best when served hot from the griddle.

19th Century Welsh food slice