{"id":336570,"date":"2025-12-09T17:52:42","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T17:52:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/uncategorized\/rock-cakes-rock-buns-the-daring-gourmet\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T17:52:42","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T17:52:42","slug":"rock-cakes-rock-buns-the-daring-gourmet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=336570","title":{"rendered":"Rock Cakes (Rock Buns) – The Daring Gourmet"},"content":{"rendered":"


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This post may contain affiliate links. See my disclosure policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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A traditional Rock Cakes recipe from England, also known as Rock Buns, these favorite pastries feature that famous craggy exterior with a buttery tender crumb that\u2019s flavored with dried currants, candied lemon peel and mixed spice. They\u2019re super easy to make and are positively delicious!<\/p>\n

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What are Rock Cakes?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Rock cakes, also known as rock buns, are a traditional English pastry popular throughout Great Britain and Northern Ireland and are made with flour, sugar, baking powder, eggs and dried fruits \u2013 usually currants or sultanas and often candied citrus peel. They\u2019re fairly dry and crumbly in texture and the batter is dropped in mounds onto the baking sheet, giving them and rough and craggy exterior. They\u2019re often served as part of afternoon tea. Their texture and consistency is similar to scones and they\u2019re nearly identical to what Americans call drop biscuits, only they\u2019re sweet. <\/p>\n

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Rock buns date back to at least the mid-19th century. Most food writers attribute rock cakes to Mrs. Beeton\u2019s publication in 1861 (referred to as \u201crock biscuits\u201d), but they go back earlier. (Which is no surprise considering Mrs. Beeton\u2019s notoriety for plagiarizing earlier authors\u2019 recipes and claiming them as her own. The age old story of stolen glory and ill-gotten fame.) George Read published a recipe for them in his 1854 cookbook, The Complete Biscuit and Gingerbread Baker\u2019s Assistant<\/em> (now in the public domain), where he refers to them Brighton Rocks (incidentally \u201cvolatile salt\u201d is an old-fashioned leavening ingredient also known as baker\u2019s ammonia):<\/p>\n

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These Brighton Rocks, later to be known as Rock Cakes or Rock Buns, were likely named after the craggy rocks along Brighton\u2019s beaches. A popular resort town, especially during the Victorian era (Roald Dahl fans, it\u2019s the setting for The Witches<\/em>), Brighton Rocks were something summer tourists could enjoy at the local cafes for afternoon tea. Fast forward to WWII, rock cakes were now being encouraged in the midst of food rationing because they used relatively little eggs and sugar compared to other cakes and pastries. In fact, it was during this time in 1941 that the Pavilion Gardens Caf\u00e9 opened and they resumed the Brighton tradition of selling rock cakes once again and have continued to ever since. <\/p>\n

And of course for you Harry Potter fans, rock cakes are famously served by Hagrid at tea but in his case they literally are rock <\/em>hard and they\u2019re politely declined. Poor Hagrid. <\/p>\n

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Rock Cakes Ingredients<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Rock buns are made with just a small handful of ingredients. Here\u2019s what you will need to make them:<\/p>\n