Cauldron-born

Disney Classic # 25 - The Black Cauldron

I didn't remember very much about the Black Cauldron, other than that it is the darkest Disney movie by far and scared the poopies out of my little sisters so much that we hardly watched it as kids. It is pretty creepy... from what I remembered before watching the movie this week there is this evil skull-faced king, and a magical cauldron, and if the king gets the cauldron he can raise an undead army... and there's this ginger kid who works on a farm and has a magic pig and he has to try to stop the evil king.

Why am I giving you this sketchy synopsis? Well, that's what I remembered of the film - so you can imagine how difficult it was to come up with an idea for a dessert to fit! Anyways, I did a little research and found out that the film is based on a book (or series of books) which in turn are based on Welsh folklore. And there is our connection!! I'd never made Welsh Cakes (or pice ar y maen) before, but they seemed to be akin to scotch pancakes, and my friend Sarah K said they're really tasty, so I decided to give them a go.


That's me on the left, showing my dislike for currants. Everyone else thought the cakes were fab.

Based on a recipe I found here. (I rely on BBC Good Food far too much for this!)

Prep time: 10 minutes      Cook time: 20 minutes      Makes: 8 cakes
Ingredients:

225g plain flour
85g caster sugar (plus extra for dusting)
1/2 tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp baking powder
50g butter
50g lard, plus extra for frying
60g mixed dried fruits
1 egg
splash of milk (if required)

1. Tip the flour, sugar, mixed spice and baking powder into a large bowl.
2. Chop the butter and the lard into small pieces, and then add these to the bowl of flour.
3. Rub the butter and lard into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse bread crumbs.
4. Tip the mixed dried fruits into the bowl with the mixture, and stir in with your hands.
5. In a separate smaller bowl, beat the egg. Add the egg to the rest of the mixture, stirring with a fork. Once the egg is mostly incorporated, begin to work the mixture with you hands to form a soft dough. If the mixture is too dry to bind as a dough, add a little milk as required.
6. Dust the work surface well with flour and roll out the dough to roughly 1 cm thickness. Cut rounds out of the dough and place these to one side, and re-roll the trimmings to continue making cakes.
7. Grease a heavy frying pan with lard and place over a medium heat. Fry the cakes in batches (I could fit three in my pan at once) until golden brown on both sides. For me this took roughly 2 minutes on each side, although I did flip them over a few times to make sure they weren't burning. Once cooked, dust the cakes with a little caster sugar and serve.

Next week we're watching Basil the Great Mouse Detective, and I'll be making a scrumptious cheesecake to go with it!

Happy Thoughts
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