Welsh Cakes and Bara Brith

Welsh cakes, pice ar y maen, come from a stiff dough of flour, butter, sugar, currants and mixed spice, rolled thin, cut in rounds and cooked on a flat cast-iron bakestone rather than baked, which gives them a slightly scorched surface and a soft middle. They are eaten warm, dusted with sugar, sometimes split and buttered, and are best within an hour of coming off the plate. Bara brith translates as speckled bread: dried fruit soaked overnight in strong tea, mixed into a loaf and baked slowly, then cut thick and buttered. Both are market food rather than restaurant food, and both go stale fast.

What you actually see

• The bakestone - a flat cast-iron plate, not an oven, giving the scorched surface.
• Warm from the plate - market stalls cooking them in front of you.
• Bara brith - fruit soaked overnight in tea, baked into a dense loaf.
• The covered markets - Cardiff and Swansea halls where both are made daily.

When to go

Year-round, and both suit cold weather better than a summer afternoon. Look for the market stalls cooking Welsh cakes to order, and go in the morning when they are freshest. St David's Day on the first of March brings them out everywhere. Bara brith keeps a couple of days wrapped; Welsh cakes really do not.

Honest expectations

Supermarket versions are dry and over-sugared, and the packaged ones sold in tourist shops bear little resemblance to a warm one. Welsh cakes are often mistaken for scones and disappoint anyone expecting that texture. Bara brith recipes vary so widely that two loaves from neighbouring stalls can taste unrelated. Neither travels well as a gift.

Nearby

Cardiff Market's hall, Swansea Market and the town bakeries across the valleys.