Scones are on the radar this week – the fabulous Heidi blogged about her lavender scones, and Dan’s Guardian recipe was parsley and cheese scones.
I can’t resist joining in with this easy lemonade version – they only have three ingredients and are so simple that they’re commonly taught in kids’ cooking classes. They’re not the prettiest of scones, but they are as light as a feather, and keep quite well.
Some clarification – “lemonade” in Australia is carbonated fizzy soda drink, like 7-Up or Sprite. The first time I posted this recipe, I had friends in the US attempt it with what they call lemonade and it was a complete disaster. The bubbles are very important!
If possible, try to use pure cream (I believe it’s known in the US as heavy whipping cream) – ours was 35% fat with nothing added. I’ve used thickened cream before quite successfully, but the scones are a bit lighter when made with pure cream. The fat content is important – these are usually made with butter, so the cream has to fulfill that role in this recipe.
I have no idea where this recipe originates, but it came to me via my friend Joyce. Her kids make a batch every week!
- 3 cups (450g) self-raising flour
- 1 cup (250g) pure cream (35% fat)
- 1 cup (250g) lemonade (7Up, Sprite etc)
1. Preheat the oven to 200C (400F) or 190C(175F) with fan. In a large mixing bowl, mix the ingredients together. Stir gently until combined and all the flour is moistened. This should take less than a minute.
2. Tip the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Handle it gently. Here’s a photo so you can see the consistency. It’s quite sticky at this point.
3. Dust your hands and the top of the dough with flour, then gently pat the dough into a thick disk. With a floured cutter, cut out the scones, and place them side by side on a lined baking tray. Cut out all you can, and then gently reshape the dough and cut out a few more. My batch made ten and a half scones.
4. Bake the scones in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until golden brown. We served ours with whipped vanilla cream and Pete’s apricot jam. Perfect for Saturday afternoon tea!
Click here for a printable version of this recipe
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
they look amazing! my husband loves scones so i want to make them for him and just so you know… they are beautiful!!! ja!
Aleida, thank you! :)
Celia, you have such a way with bready things – these look perfect, and so mouthwatering with the jam and cream. I’ve always been a bit fearful of over-handling scones and so have avoided them. I made some pumpkin ones recently from Frills in the Hills site and they were very nice but didn’t really rise and I rolled them too thin so they were more like sweet hockey pucks :). I think I really couldn’t mess this recipe up so I’m going to give it a go
Sarah, I’m pretty rubbish at traditional scones as well, which is why I make these. When I try traditional recipes, I usually end up with little rock cakes. These are really light, and while the dough is a bit sticky, they do tolerate a bit of handling.
Celia, I love scones and every now and then have a craving. I’m definitely going to try these. Hopefully with the different flour and cream here I can still get results close to yours. They look so good.
Dan, fingers crossed. The thing to look out for is the cream – when US bakers tried to make it in the past, they found it hard to get good cream. It has to have enough fat for the recipe to work, so please do check the fat content.
They look great!
What a neat idea, presumably you make this with sugar based lemonade not low cal artificial sweetener lemonade or doesn’t it matter? I’ve read all those cook your turkey in coca cola recipes and shuddered but this sounds pdg!
Jo, I do make them with sweet lemonade, but in the past I’ve also made them with soda water and also once with leftover champagne! Traditional Aussie (and I think British) scone recipes don’t add sugar (at least, I don’t think they do). These scones work fine with soda water, although they didn’t rise as much with champagne.
I think the thinking here goes along the lines of – the cream replaces the butter, the bubbles replace the bicarb/baking soda.
i haven’t had a scone in forever. they look very inviting, and thanks for being clear on the lemonade thing!
Thanks Dana! It’s funny how much confusion the word “lemonade” caused.. :)
Wow, decadence indeed Celia – cream in the scones and on the scones! Sounds interesting using lemonade. I did see this somewhere recently and thought I should try it as I am rubbish at making scones (could be because I insist on wholemeal flour though).
Choclette, it would probably still work if you’re using self-raising wholemeal flour. I know it sounds decadent – Big Boy actually made exactly the same comment about the cream – but we often forget that cream IS butter, only a lighter, wetter version of it! :)
Celia, I was only joking. As you know, I think of butter and cream both as health foods ;)
I LOVE <3 this recipe! I am making them tomorrow for Sunday tea. Thanks for the clarification about the bubbly lemonade. I have a recipe for palacinta ( Hungarian crepes) that uses the same principle with carbonated soda water.
These look light and lovely- a new recipe to enjoy!
Thanks, Celia, your recipes are always yummy!
Heidi, thanks for the inspiration. You’ve got us all baking scones! There are only three ingredients in this recipe, but I think it’s possible that the US version of all of them is slightly different to ours, which is why I tried to be clear about the cream and lemonade. The cream confused a lot of people – it really won’t work well with a light cream or “half and half”, as there won’t be enough fat.
The dough is sticky, so it needs a little flour thrown around at cutting (but it’s certainly not going to be an issue for you! :)).
I saw a scone recipe in my Australian copy of delicious, made with lemonade. Believe me, I spent months searching for pure lemonade from Schweppes, didn’t find and gave it up. Back to the drawing board…….thanks!
Oz, it will work with 7Up or Sprite – there’s nothing special about Schweppes Lemonade (despite what their marketing people might want you to believe :)).
I shouldn’t have sat down, and looked at your post while hungry. Silly, silly girl- now I want scones….no. I NEED scones!
I’m loving a recipe with 3 ingredients.
The scones look delicious and the recipe seems pretty easy too. Thanks for sharing.
Your scones look so lovely and light! Nice!
I love this recipe and will be trying it tomorrow to take to my Mums. Thanks!
Mmm it’s scone weather isn’t it! Something in the air, perhaps it’s the chilly nip that motivates one to turn on the oven! :D They look great Celia!
This is a great fun recipe and I find it works everytime. Sometimes I swap the lemonade for ginger beer for a bit of a subtle change.
The best excuse ever to eat cream and jam! I once cooked hundreds of scones a day in an old black iron ‘wood’ stove on a friend’s country property in the barn – every Sunday we would take it in turns to cook and serve scones and tea to tourists. Your post took me back. I even made a profit!!
Thank you all!
Chef, ginger beer sounds like a brilliant idea – ginger scones!
Roz, I can’t imagine cooking hundreds of scones a day! Good on you for making money.. :)
This is our favourite scone recipe too, Celia! I came across it while on kinder duty a few years ago with one of my daughters. Then it made an appearance in the school’s cookbook..it’s just such a winner!
I started keeping a tray of lemonade cans in the pantry (hidden from roving eyes) for this exact purpose. So quick to whip up too… Yours look delish :)
Christine, I wonder who the genius was who came up with the recipe? I have heard it’s a downunder invention – from either Australia or NZ. We keep lemonade cans in the fridge just for that reason too! :)
Now this is a recipe I have to try! I can see another favorite in my recipe box thanks to you!
Lemonade scones. Yum! I haven’t had them forever…., light fluffy little morsels they are too.
I was thinking about this recipe on the weekend. Will definitely make them this weekend. And they look beautiful! Can’t wait to try them – and I would be really excited to try them with ginger beer.
Awesome.
Can you do rasberry flavoured softdrink for a subtle pinkish colour? I am just thinking it would be great for birthday parties, maybe cupcakes. I have it pink fairy cakes.
Celia, your blog is a success, it brings joy to people all over the world, well done!
{:0)
Cindy, hope you like them! :)
Anna, Vita, isn’t it nice that they’re so well known here? I’ve decided they must be an Aussie recipe! Agree that the ginger beer would be great!
Moo, you’re a sweetheart, thank you! I’m not sure what red drink would do to the scones…hmm…although I don’t know if I can bring myself to buy fluoro red softdrink! :)
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I have always wanted to try lemonade scones – now I have a recipe, it’s a good time to start!
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Cakelaw, Heide, thanks for stopping by! And Heide, you’re so right – until this recipe came along, my scones were always like little rock cakes! :)
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I just had to tell you Celia, I took the girls for a visit to my mum’s today and guess what she got them making…? Yup, lemonade scones! Very timely of her, it really must’ve been scone week everywhere, lol!! :)
Maybe we can start a tradition..second week of August is scone week? I’ve now put it in my diary for next year…hehe..
C, just wanted to let you know I tried these today. So easy. I used 3 cups of plain flour with 4 teaspoons of baking soda (self raising flour isn’t so common here), heavy whipping cream (seems to be the right substitute), and sprite. They worked really well! Yum, yum. Now excuse me while I work on gaining some more weight.
Cool! Glad you liked them, Dan!
Adding this to my must make soon list! But I’m so glad you clarified the lemonade bit- I never would have guessed it was really soda. Ha.
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