Jamaican Bulla Cakes (vegan)

Jamaican bulla cake - these tasty ginger bulla cakes are super easy to make with basic ingredients and are a great snack.

Flavoured with ginger, spices, brown sugar and molasses or treacle; enjoy them with a hot drink, spread with butter or with avocado or vegan cheese.

What Are Bulla Cakes?:

Bulla cake is a traditional Jamaican snack that is inexpensive and easy to make with basic ingredients, but tastes so good!

They are usually flavoured with molasses, brown sugar, ginger and other spices; though flavours such as pineapple, coconut and banana can also be found.

Shaped as small, flat, round loaves; bulla have a dense, chewy texture somewhere between a gingerbread cookie, a cake and a scone. They are commonly eaten with either cheese or avocado (pear), or just with a hot drink.

As bulla are made with an eggless dough they are very easy to make vegan, you simply have to swap the dairy butter for a vegan one.

My Jamaican in-laws absolutely loved this recipe and I hope you will too!

Ingredient Details:

Black treacle: Usually these would be made with molasses but that is hard to get hold of in the UK so I use black treacle, obviously molasses will work instead.

Brown sugar: I recommend using dark brown soft or muscovado sugar. A lot of the moisture in these bulla cakes comes from the sugar so do not reduce it or swap it for another type of sugar otherwise they will be too dry!

Vegan butter: I recommend using a block style vegan butter rather than a spreadable one. You could probably also use oil instead though I haven't tested it.

Spices: Ginger is a must, I use both dried and fresh (I use frozen grated ginger), though the fresh is optional. I also add cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice, feel free to vary these.

Plain flour: Plain (all-purpose) flour is best here.

Baking powder and soda: Both are needed for the best texture.

How To Make Jamaican Bulla Cakes:

(Full measurements and instructions can be found in the recipe card at the bottom of the page)

Step 1: Whisk together the treacle/molasses and the melted butter then whisk in the brown sugar, fresh ginger, vanilla extract and water.

Step 2: Mix in the ground ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, salt, baking powder and soda then the flour. The dough should be soft and a bit sticky.

Step 3: Refrigerate the dough for 15 minutes then knead it briefly on a lightly floured surface until it forms a smooth ball.

Step 4: Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface to 1cm thick and use a floured 9cm round cutter to cut out as many rounds as possible. Re-roll the dough to cut out more bulla. Place them spaced apart on a couple of lined baking sheets.

Step 5: Bake the bulla for 15 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Transfer to a wire cooling rack and brush with melted butter.

Top Tips:

You want the dough to be on the sticky side so resist the temptation to add extra flour unless you really need to. If you are finding it too sticky to roll out, cover the dough and refrigerate it for 15-30 minutes until if has firmed up a bit.

Don't roll the dough out too thin, bulla cakes should be quite thick. I find around 1cm is perfect.

FAQ's:

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