How many calories in a scone? Plain, fruit and a cream tea

A scone is a small, plain-looking bake that arrives at the table with a pot of thick cream and a pot of jam. Most people assume the cream is where the calories are, and per gram they are right. Clotted cream is one of the densest foods in the kitchen.

Per plate, they are wrong. In a café cream tea, the scone is the biggest number on the plate, and it is the one that never gets questioned.

The quick answer

Per 100g, and by typical size, before any toppings.

These figures sit in the middle of UK supermarket and bakery labels, and line up with the USDA entries for scones. Coffee-shop chains in the US commonly sell scones of 120 to 140g, which is why a single American scone is often 500 kcal or more.

Calories by weight

For a scone on a scale, or a bakery that publishes weights.

The toppings

Clotted cream is about 586 kcal per 100g. It is made by slowly heating cream until the fat rises and sets into a thick crust, and the result is roughly 63% fat. A 30g café pot carries around 12g of saturated fat, which is about 60% of the NHS daily maximum of 20g for women and 40% of the 30g for men.

The cream tea, by plate

In the standard café version, the scone is 62% of the plate. The cream that looks indulgent is 28%, and the jam is 10%.

That changes what the useful move is. Skipping the cream saves 176 kcal and loses the point of a cream tea. Choosing a smaller scone, or sharing a large one, saves 180 to 200 kcal and keeps every topping.

A pot of tea with a splash of semi-skimmed milk adds about 14 kcal a cup. It is not where the calories are.

Fruit, cheese and plain

The fruit scone looks like the lighter choice. It is about 340 kcal per 100g against 360 for plain, so an 80g fruit scone saves 16 kcal. The dried fruit adds sugar while taking the place of a little butter and flour, and the two roughly cancel.

A cheese scone is about 370, slightly heavier than plain. It is usually eaten with butter rather than cream and jam, which makes the plate lighter overall: an 80g cheese scone with 10g of butter is about 368, against 635 for a café cream tea.

Jam first or cream first

The Cornish way puts jam on the scone first and cream on top. The Devon way spreads cream first, like butter, and jam on top. The argument has run for a long time and the calories are identical: same scone, same cream, same jam.

What does change the total is thickness. A thin 15g layer of clotted cream is 88 kcal, and a generous dollop of 45g is 264. That 176 kcal gap is bigger than the gap between any two scones on this page.

UK and US words that trip up logging

• Scone. A British scone and an American scone share a name and not much else. The American version is typically bigger, sweeter and glazed, at around 533 kcal for a 130g coffee-shop scone. Log a British café scone as an American one and you overcount by about 137 kcal.
• Biscuit. The American buttermilk biscuit is the British scone's nearest relative: a quick bread raised with baking powder, about 210 kcal each. The biscuit breakdown covers why "biscuit" means three different foods.
• Clotted cream. Has no exact US equivalent. Whipped cream is the usual substitute and is about 140 kcal for 30g against 176 for clotted.
• Cream tea and afternoon tea. A cream tea is scones, cream, jam and tea. Afternoon tea adds sandwiches and cakes, and is a full meal or more.
• Sultanas. The usual fruit in a British fruit scone, the same thing Americans call golden raisins.

Scone mistakes to avoid

Logging every scone as the same scone

A supermarket scone and a café scone can differ by 180 kcal. The word "scone" in a food log usually defaults to a small one.

Treating the cream as the only variable

The cream gets the attention because it looks rich. In a café cream tea, the scone is more than twice the calories of the cream.

Choosing fruit to save calories

It saves about 16 kcal on a bakery scone. Choose it because you like it.

Butter and cream

Some people butter the scone before the cream goes on. That adds 72 kcal for a layer of fat under a thicker layer of fat, and most people cannot taste the difference.

Ordering the second scone

A cream tea for one with two scones is 1,054 kcal. Many cafés serve two scones by default. Sharing the second is the biggest saving on the menu.

Three ways to keep a cream tea

The classic, sized down (342 kcal)

• 1 small 60g scone (216 kcal)
• 15g clotted cream (88 kcal)
• 15g jam (38 kcal)

Adds up to: 342 kcal. Still clotted cream, still jam, still a cream tea. The saving comes from the size of the scone and the thickness of the layers, not from leaving anything out.

Share the café scone (318 kcal each)

• Half of a large 110g scone each (198 kcal)
• Half of a 30g pot of clotted cream each (88 kcal)
• Half of a 25g pot of jam each, rounded (32 kcal)

Adds up to: 318 kcal each, for the full café experience. One cream tea between two is the easiest calorie cut in a tea room.

The cheese scone lunch (368 kcal)

• 1 bakery 80g cheese scone (296 kcal)
• 10g butter (72 kcal)
• A bowl of tomato soup if it is lunch (see the soup breakdown)

Adds up to: 368 kcal for the scone and butter. A savoury scone with butter is lighter than a sweet one with cream and jam, and it is easier to turn into a meal.

The verdict

A plain café scone is about 396 kcal before toppings, and a café cream tea is about 635. A small supermarket scone is about 216, and a fruit scone saves only around 16 kcal against plain.

Clotted cream is the densest thing on the plate at 5.9 kcal per gram. The scone is still the biggest number, because it is a large, butter-rich bake that weighs nearly four times as much as the cream.

If you change one thing, choose the size of the scone rather than giving up the cream.

Pairs well with: how many calories in a crumpet, the butter calorie breakdown, and the biscuit calorie breakdown.