Welsh Onion Cake is a traditional family favourite that is prepared with a few simple ingredients: potatoes, onions, cheese, and seasonings. It's a very versatile recipe as its easy to prepare as vegan and plant-based, and it's also ideal for gluten-free diets as we have included easy substitution ideas.
A Welsh Onion Cake is a a good example of Welsh Country Cooking at its best as it is prepared with simple budget-friendly wholesome ingredients. The potatoes are butter-soft, creamy, and crisp on top, and the onions are sweet, caramelised and juicy.
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🧅 What is a Welsh onion cake?
If you would like to find out about the origins of Welsh onion cake and why it is called a cake then click the toggle '🧅' below.
🧅 What is a Welsh onion cake?
A Welsh Onion Cake is a traditional Welsh recipe originating in rural Welsh Farmhouses where the cake was cooked alongside a roast or other meal. Onions, potatoes and cheese were Welsh seasonal ingredients especially for poorer folk. While most onion cake recipes have a cheese topping others include leeks, fresh herbs, or sliced tomatoes. For many traditional British recipes the term 'cake' isn't restricted to sweet baked recipes as historically the term cake has been used for anything, sweet and savoury, that takes a particular form or shape when cooked such as potato cakes, fish cakes, oat cakes, and soul cakes. The onion cake is usually baked in a circular cake pan and is served in slices similar to a cake.
For information about Traditional Welsh Cooking do have a look at this interesting article from historic-uk.com.
🔪 How to prepare
All the best recipes are traditional, require only a few ingredients, yet are packed with tasty textures and flavours. Our ancestors had to make do with much less choice of ingredients than we do now, but they sure made the best of a few local ingredients by turning them into homely meals.
As we are a plant-based family recipe blog we always recommend vegan-friendly ingredients such as vegan butter, margarine and plant-based cheese, however, if you have different dietary requirements do feel free to use your everyday ingredients.
Step 1: First gather all your ingredients. Next slice the onions into rings, the potatoes into thin slices, and grate the vegan cheese. You can use a mandolin to slice the potatoes if preferred.
Line a cake pan with parchment paper, we used a cake pan with a loose-bottom so that the baked cake could be removed more easily. Our cake pan measured 8 inch diameter and 3 ½ inch high.
Step 2: Heat the oil in a fry pan or skillet and cook the onions over a medium heat for 8 minutes stirring frequently.
Step 3: Add two layers of potato slices to the bottom of the cake pan. Cover with a layer of onions and season with salt and pepper. Dot a teaspoon of margarine over this layer.
Step 4: Sprinkle some vegan cheese over the layer.
Step 5: Repeat the layers but just add one layer of potatoes and omit the margarine for the middle layers. Season each layer with salt and pepper.
Step 6: Finish the onion cake with a layer of grated cheese and dot a teaspoon of margarine over the top.
Step 7: Drizzle 240 millilitres [1 cup] of vegetable stock over the cake being careful not to disturb the cheese. Cover the top of the cake pan with kitchen or Aluminium foil.
Step 8: Bake for 45 minutes before removing the foil and baking for a further 30 minutes or until the potatoes are soft and the top is golden and crispy. If you use a mandolin your potato slices will be quite thin so the cake will bake faster and you can reduce the cooking time.
Step 9: Allow the onion cake to sit for 5 minutes to settle before removing from the cake pan or slicing a piece. If any of the layers falls apart while slicing and lifting they can be easily pushed back!
Serving suggestion: Once the onion cake is removed from the cake tin the vegetable juices will run out of the bottom so this could be regarded as a self-saucing cake. We used an OXO meat-free chicken flavour stock cube to prepare the stock so it did contribute a nice flavour. We enjoyed the onion cake with vegan sausages [Co-Op Gro Sizzlin' vegan sausages], peas and corn, and gravy.
***please note: for US measurements click the 'US customary button' within the recipe and the measurements will switch to tablespoons, cups, and ounces.***
📖 Recipe
Traditional Welsh Onion Cake
Equipment
- non-stick skillet or frying pan
- deep cake pan or similar 8 inch diameter x 3 ½ inch high, use one with a loose bottom if available
- greaseproof or baking paper
- Aluminium foil
- Baking tray
Ingredients
Saute onions:
- 1 tablespoon olive oil [or your usual oil, or replace with ½ cup of vegetable stock or broth for an oil-free dish]
- 500 grams onions [about 2 medium-large onions, peeled and sliced into thin rings, if onions are quite large half the rings]
Onion cake:
- 950 grams potatoes [keep the skins on if unblemished, slice as thin as you can or use a mandolin]
- 2 teaspoons vegan margarine [or vegan butter, or omit this ingredient and see recipe notes for substitute]
- 100 grams vegan cheese [grated/shreds, can replace with nutritional yeast flakes - a tablespoon or two for each layer] [you can use more cheese if preferred]
- 240 mililitres vegetable stock [we used one meat-free chicken flavour OXO cubes dissolved in boiling water]
Instructions
Prepare the onions:
- Heat the oil in the skillet pan over a medium heat. Add the onions and cook for 8 minutes, stirring frequently.[Alternatively, heat ½ cup [120 millilitres] of vegetable stock and saute the onions, adding small amounts of extra stock whenever required to prevent the onions sticking to the pan]1 tablespoon olive oil, 500 grams onions
Assemble the onion cake:
- Preheat the oven to 190 Fan, 210 C, 410 Fahrenheit, Gas 6.
- Grease the cake pan with margarine and line with parchment paper.
- While building up the onion cake layers keep in mind the amount of your ingredients and the size of your cake pan so that you can evenly distribute the ingredients throughout the layers.
- Add two layers of potato slices to the bottom of the cake pan and cover with some of the onions. Season with salt and pepper, and dot one teaspoon of margarine over the layer [although the margarine is optional]. Sprinkle some of the cheese over this layer.950 grams potatoes, 100 grams vegan cheese, 2 teaspoons vegan margarine
- Repeat with another layer of potatoes slices, onions, salt and pepper, and some cheese, until you get to the top final layer.
- For the final layer end with a layer of potatoes, salt and pepper, cheese, and the second teaspoon of margarine dotted over the top layer.
- Drizzle over the vegetable stock and it will pour down through the layers, although be careful not to disturb the top cheese layer too much.240 mililitres vegetable stock
- Cover the top of the cake pan tightly with some Aluminium or kitchen foil, and place the cake pan on top of the baking tray, and place into the oven on the middle shelf or the shelf close to the top of the oven. Bake for 45 minutes.[Although, if your using the oven for a different dish you could start with the onion cake at the bottom of the oven and then move it up nearer the top when the foil is removed for the topping to crisp up. This may increase the initial baking time but cooking several dishes at once can be great energy and money saver]
- After 45 minutes, switch the heat up to 200 Fan, 220 C, 428 Fahrenheit, or Gas 7, and remove the foil lid from the cake pan. Bake for another 25 minutes or so until the potatoes are soft and the top is nice and crispy golden. The exact times will depend on your oven and the thickness of the sliced potatoes. If you used a mandolin the potatoes will be much thinner and so will cook quicker.
- Once the onion cake is removed from the oven allow it to sit for 5 minutes to settle before slicing. If you baked using a loose-bottomed cake pan, you can sit the cake pan on top of a can of food and then carefully slide the cake sides down. Use a tea towel or oven mitts to help as the cake pan will be hot!We didn't attempt to remove the cake base or parchment paper from the cake and instead for an easier life just added it all to the serving plate!
- Use a sharp knife to carefully cut a slice of onion cake and a flat wide spatula or fish slice utensil to scoop up the cake. If any of the layers are displaced just push them back together!
Notes
- Nutritional information is for guidance only and is not an exact calculation as ingredients vary.
- Store leftovers, covered, within the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
- Or freeze for 2-3 months.
- Leftovers can be added to a baking dish or placed onto a baking tray lined with baking paper, and reheated in a hot oven for 25 minutes or until piping hot throughout. The tops of the potatoes and onions will become nice and crispy and more caramelized as its reheated so leftovers are very tasty.
- The potatoes can be replaced with a similar textured vegetable such as sweet potatoes, parsnips, celeriac, or swede [also known as rutabaga in the US and turnip in Scotland]. An onion cake created with a mixture of different root vegetables, as well as potatoes, would look very nice.
- For an oil-free onion cake you can saute the onions in a small amount of vegetable stock or broth, adding a little more whenever required.The margarine can be omitted and instead if you have any white miso paste available you can whisk through a tablespoon of the paste through the hot vegetable stock that is poured over the assembled onion cake before baking. Doing so will add extra umami savoury flavours without the additional calories and fat.
- We used Violife Cheddar Flavour block of vegan cheese [400gram block].
- The vegan cheese can be replaced with 1-2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast flakes sprinkled over each layer as well as the top layer as this will add cheesy flavours.
- For a gluten-free onion cake use a gluten-free vegetable stock, and check that your margarine and vegan cheese are also free from gluten-ingredients.
- We used ordinary potatoes labelled as - white potatoes - sourced from our local Co-Op supermarket [UK].
- Our onions were ordinary supermarket ones - yellow onions.
- Additons: feel free to add fresh or dried herbs like thyme, sage, chives, or rosemary to each layer for added flavour. Some traditional recipes for onion cake also include one or two leeks along with the onions so you could add some leeks if liked.
- Onion cakes can be prepared in individual mini pie or cake tins, or ramekins, and served directly from the dish along with sides. Adjust the cooking times as they may cook faster. Leftovers, can also be packed into ramekins or individual baking dishes and stored, then reheated as this way you can see how many portions you have.
- As we are a plant-based family recipe blog all our recommendations will be for vegan cheese, margarine, butter, etc. However, if you have different dietary requirements you can use your usual ingredients.
Nutrition
🌍 More traditional Welsh recipes - made meat-free, dairy-free & egg-free
We love cooking and baking traditional Welsh recipes made vegan. So more recipes are going to be added as Welsh cooking is packed with hearty, homely, family favourite comfort foods.
So far we have enjoyed bowls of this tasty meat-free Welsh Cawl Soup followed by a pudding of warm Welsh Apple Cake and custard or a drizzle of plant-based cream. Although the adult-kids do prefer a few scoops of ice-cream with the apple cake instead. Reheating the apple cake crisps up the edges and results in similar flavours and textures to an apple pie.
For breakfast or elvenses we like a few of these Bakestone Cakes warmed up and split in two and buttered. Bake a batch and pop them in the freezer and then you can enjoy one or two whenever you like.
Another snack idea is this delicious Welsh Rarebit which actually used to be sliced into small squares and enjoyed as a retro after-dinner snack.
💬 Comments
Prepared our Welsh Onion Cake recipe? Do pop back and drop us a comment below and click the star ratings, as we would love to know how you got on. It's very much appreciated, thanks so much! Jacq x
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