If someone asked me what my favourite cake or sweet treat would be it would be a choice of two things. Although I love baking cakes and cupcakes, I can’t resist chewy, gooey flapjacks or scones covered in strawberry jam and cream.  It brings back fantastic childhood memories of tea out with my grandparents. Whenever I go anywhere for afternoon tea, the scones are always top of the list for me.

When it was my 40th birthday last year I loved afternoon tea so much I decided to have an afternoon tea party in my local village hall as a celebration. Not for me a pub crawl and throwing up into a gutter at 3am.  Though perhaps 20 years ago when I was a student, now it doesn’t have it’s appeal. At the celebration I just had to have scones!  My mum made some beautiful, delicate little scones to have with jam and cream at the party and they went down very well.

At the end of term as a teaching assistant I always get lots of lovely gifts from the children who I work with.  These are usually totally unexpected as I love my job.  This time I was given a gift of a jam pot complete with jar of strawberry jam from one of the families in school.  I was over the moon with this as the parent concerned knew how much I liked baking.  The first thought was this wasn’t going to be wasted on toast, I was going to enjoy this with a traditional afternoon tea!

Yesterday was a funny day where the weather had turned to rain and we didn’t know what to expect.  I had a carton of buttermilk in the fridge that was getting near to it’s use by date and I just fancied having scones.  So, I had a play around with some scone recipes and came up with this version. If you don’t like fruit you could leave it plain or add chocolate chips, citrus peel or even some cherries which are another huge favourite of mine!

50g sultanas

50g raisins

450g self raising flour

80g golden caster sugar

150g butter

2 large free range eggs, beaten.

6 tbsp buttermilk

Makes 9 large scones if using a large 10cm approx circular fluted cutter.

Sift the flour into a bowl, then add the sugar.  Rub in the butter carefully until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs. Sprinkle on the dried fruit. Pour on the beaten egg and the buttermilk. Combine together with a pallette knife then work the rest together with your hands.  If the dough is a bit dry add another 1tbsp buttermilk. Don’t handle the dough too much though.  Form the dough into a ball then put it onto a floured work surface. Roll lightly so it is about 1″ thick and cut the scones out. Whatever you do don’t twist the cutter around, just tap it or the scone will go a funny shape! Carry on til you get trimmings, roll the scone mix up and start again.  Put the scones on two baking sheets covered with parchment and bake in a preheated oven at 220oc/ fan 200oC/425oF or GM7. Bake for about 10-12 minutes until they are well risen and golden brown. Best served fresh on the day they are made!

My son came into the kitchen and said “Wow, scones!”  He normally laughs about me and my cream teas saying I’m an old grandma but he wolfed two down there and then!  Scones are definitely NOT old people cakes!  They are delicious whatever your age.

Happy Baking!

Love Sam xx