Air Fryer Rock Cakes

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How to make delicious Air Fryer Rock Cakes. If you love scones and you want to try something different, then you will love old fashioned rock cakes cooked in the air fryer.

Or if you love Harry Potter then you can rest assured that these rock buns will not be burnt like the movies and instead you will want to go back for a second helping!

This rock cakes recipe was originally shared back in 2018 and updating with new photos and better tips and tricks for making the best rock cakes.

Rock Cakes

Sorry to upset my eldest son (who is a HUGE Harry Potter fan) I have never really taken to the Harry Potter craze. I have watched the first film and loved it, but never enjoyed any after that.

So, when I was talking to Kyle about my greatest love for rock cakes, he mentioned that they were a big part of the Harry Potter films but they were burnt and inedible so mine better be good!

For me though, rock cakes were a food of childhood. Something my grandma would make every single time she did some baking. They were delicious and reminded me of a split between cake texture and scones and I always had them with some butter and some jam.

Plus, because of their association with rations in WW2 they are also very cheap to make and are great for picnics, parties etc.

Baking With Grandma Kitty

This week on Recipe This is dedicated to what recipes my grandma taught me when I was young.

It would have been her birthday this week and I want to celebrate the amazing old school classic recipes she taught me, that still today feel like they should be cooked in the air fryer.

Her nickname was Kitty to many, and she loved the classic bero little cookbooks that you can still buy today. (Here is one of them for sale)

We also have many readers over 80 at Recipe This that love old school baking, and this is dedicated to anyone that would love to bake in the air fryer with classic recipes that never go out of fashion.

You can follow the full series below:

• Air Fryer Fruit Scones
• Air Fryer Rock Cakes (what you are reading now)
• Air Fryer Fat Rascals
• Air Fryer Egg & Bacon Pie

Are You New To The Air Fryer?

Plus, as well as our extremely popular air fryer mini course which teaches you the air fryer basics in 5 days, we also have our air fryer bucket list. That is loaded with 30 FREE bucket list worthy air fryer recipes.

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Grandma’s Rock Cake Recipe

Like I mentioned, growing up it was my grandma that made the rock cakes. She would use the washing up bowl (nicely cleaned out of course) as her giant mixing bowl and make a HUGE batch of rock cakes.

I later learnt that her AMAZING rock cakes were adapted from the Bero rock buns and its my adaption of these to the air fryer, that we are using today.

So, thanks Grandma for inspiring my love for rock cakes.

What Is A Rock Bun?

A rock bun, also known as rock cakes, is a delicious afternoon snack that became fashionable during the rationing era in the 1940s and 1950s.

It is similar to a scone and has similar ingredients to fruit scones but is more like a thick cake batter when you add the rock buns to the air fryer ready for cooking.

But because of the way you just spoon in the batter into the air fryer they are shaped like rocks rather than being perfectly smooth like a scone.

What’s The Difference Between Scones & Rock Cakes?

Scones and rock cakes are very similar. The list of ingredients for rock cakes and for scones are very similar, yet they look somewhat different.

For example, scones are the perfect shape and rock buns are rough around the edges like rock.

The big difference you will find in rock cake ingredients, is that they have double the butter to scones. This makes them even more yummy and gives a rich taste.

Why Are My Rock Cakes So Dry?

This usually happens with rock cakes if you have not added enough butter to the batter, have used low fat spread, or you have cooked your rock cakes for too long.

That is why we recommend making this rock cake recipe with the air fryer because you can control the time and temp so much better and don’t need to waste electric on a preheat.

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Rock Cake Ingredients

Flour – I recommend using a strong quality flour like Bero and you will need self raising flour for making rock cakes.

Butter – We used M&S unsalted butter, but you can swap this for margarine if you prefer as it can make the rock bun recipe much cheaper to make.

Sugar – Then for sugar we used caster sugar. You don’t need a lot in rock cakes compared to other sweet baking recipes.  

Egg – After the flour, sugar, and butter have been added to your rock bun mix you will need some egg.

Currants – Then you can use a mix of dates, raisins etc or whatever you prefer. We used some raisins that were spare in our cupboard. Plus, you will also want some mixed peel to make your rock cakes more traditional.   

Milk – You don’t need a lot of milk just enough to bind together your rock cake mix and to create a batter that is similar to a thick cake batter.

Then for the kitchen gadgets that we have used in this rock cake recipe it has just been our Cosori air fryer. We have this one and its wonderful for many types of air fryer recipes.

Plus, we recommend you head over to our air fryer recipes category as we have more than 500 tried and tested air fryer recipes and have been air frying for 10 years.

How Do You Make Rock Cakes?

• Rub. Start by loading into a bowl your flour and sugar and then mixing the fat into the flour and sugar, until it resembles breadcrumbs.
• Add. Next add in raisins, mixed peel and egg and mix well, then add enough milk to make a wet dough.   
• Line. As this is a sticky batter, add a layer of foil to your air fryer basket ready for cooking your rock cakes on.
• Spoon. Use a spoon to add two heaped tablespoons of rock cake mix to the foil in the air fryer  and do this until you have four blobs ready to be air fried.
• Cook. Air fry your rock cakes for 8 minutes at 180c/360f.
• Serve. When the air fryer beeps put to one side ready for serving and work in batches until you have cooked all your rock cakes.

And I am sure you can see now how easy it is making rock cakes in air fryer and how you can be doing the same.

Rock Cakes With Jam

Old fashioned rock cakes wouldn’t be the same without jam. Once you have followed our recipe for rock cakes, I recommend that you slice them in half and load them up with a little butter and some strawberry jam. They will then make a fantastic brunch for lazy weekends.

Listen To Air fryer Rock Cakes

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More Old Fashioned Baking In The Air Fryer

I love old school baking. It feels like it never goes out of fashion. I’m aged 40 and the first thing I learnt at school was how to cook scones and now I love air fryer scones.

The same can be said for the following timeless baking recipes that are perfect for the air fryer:

• Air Fryer Cheese Flan
• Air Fryer Cheese Whirls
• Air Fryer Sponge Cake
• Air Fryer Sausage Rolls
• Air Fryer Butterfly Cakes
• Air Fryer Cornish Pasties
• Air Fryer Suet Dumplings

Your rock cakes recipe is below, note you can print it out with or without photos, adjust servings, or click between metric and imperial depending on where you are in the world.

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