Cake 9 - Raisin and Sultana Scones

For the nine people in the big wide world who are avidly watching my blog, you may have noticed that last weekend 'What Bridie Baked' was a big fat zero. No one was more disappointed than me, and I kept having pangs of guilt from my sick bed thinking I had let my nine cake loving disciples down. I thought that I could probably bake most things sitting down, but if my foot wasn't elevated after having my foot operation, I would surely be in pain. I'm a bit of a messy baker too, and I was bound to end up dropping cake mixture on my bandaged foot or fall over my crutches on the way to the oven. Even my pain killers advised not to operate heavy machinery.......so I thought I'd better leave the hand whisk safely in the drawer, and hang up my oven glove for the time being.

Mid week, things were much improved pain wise, but boredom had well and truly set in. After clicking the refresh button on the facebook home page repeatedly, hoping for the latest news from other people’s status updates, I decided that my life was beyond sad. There was only one thing for it, I was going to drag my ugly orthopedic shoe into the kitchen, and by God I was going to bake something if it killed me.

As I hadn't bought ingredients in for a specific recipe, I had to work with the staple items I had on hand in the cupboards. Flour, tick. Raisins and sultanas, tick. Margarine, tick. The recipe was staring me in the face - SCONES!!!!
I love a good scone. It evokes memories of cream teas in Cornwall, and a wasp that wouldn't leave me alone. A wasp that met its sticky end in a pot of the finest strawberry jam I have ever tasted.

The best thing about a scone is its simplicity; you can rustle it up in no time. They don't call it the fastest cake in the world for nothing (get it? 'scone'). When put on a cake stand you could be having afternoon tea at the Ritz! Served with butter, jam, and clotted cream a scone makes you feel like royalty, but they also taste good scoffed straight from the oven making crumbs on the floor! It's also the law that any spare dough that you have left, you have to fashion into an unusual shape and bake along with the rest.

In a nutshell, this is the whole short process of perfect scone making. Rub the margarine into the flour and baking soda, add a spoon full of sugar, add raisins, milk to form a dough, roll out, cut into rounds, and bake for 10-15 minutes.
These particular scones were a delight. I always roll out the dough slightly thicker than recommended so I get scones like sky scrapers. They have provided me with lunch for the latter part of the week. Not exactly balanced I know, but hey cut me some slack...I am nursing a bad foot and an ugly ass shoe :)

Just to share my future plans with you, I am thinking of posting the recipes for everything I make on this blog. Let me know your thoughts!