Jaffa Cakes

 

Jaffa cakes are one of the great British classics, with that delicious combination of dark chocolate, tangy orange and a slightly biscuitty cake. The company went to court to ensure that they were classified as cakes rather than biscuits, and, on the basis that cakes go hard when stale and biscuits go soft, they won their case (something to do with VAT, as I recall!).   I have recently acquired a new job, which has the merits of a whole lovely group of people to test my baking on, so I thought I'd try some jaffa cakes...

Well, they all got eaten, although I have tweaked the recipe slightly to make the orange layer slightly more orangy.  The recipe below is a combination of several, as I was looking for the Genoese sponge base which is the best match to the original, and then a top with proper gelatine instead of melted jelly.  It seems to have a lot to it, but the result is definitely worth it, and my new testers were happy.   

Home Made Jaffa Cakes

Home Made Jaffa Cakes

Jelly:   3 tbsp marmalade, 1 tbsp apricot jam (or just marmalade)
2 sheets gelatine, orange juice to make up to ½ pint/280ml liquid
 
Cakes:  2 eggs
2oz/50g caster sugar
2oz/50g plain flour, sieved
 
Chocolate: approx 7oz/200g dark chocolate
 
Make the jelly layer first – put the marmalade and jam into a jug and add enough orange juice to get to ½ pint/280ml.  Pour into a small pan and heat it until bubbling gently.  Soak the gelatine in cold water, squeeze out when soft and add to the mix.   Take this off the heat while you prepare the mould.   Grease a baking tray (8 x 10”/20 x 30cm) and line it with cling film.  Now sieve the gel into the tray, where it should make a layer about ½”.5cm.  Let this cool and then chill for a few hours as it has to be well set (trust me!). 
 
Preheat oven to 180 deg C, and grease a 12 cup muffin tin.   Pour a small amount of water in a pan and bring it to the simmer.   Put a heatproof bowl on top (don’t let the water touch the bowl).   Tip in the eggs and sugar and whisk this together for about 5 minutes so that the mixture is pale and fluffy.  Add the flour and whisk for 1 minute.   Put the batter into the muffin tin, about half way up each hole, and bake for 8-10 minutes.   A skewer should come out clean.  Allow the cakes to cool in the tin as you want that slightly denser texture.   
 
Assembly time!    If the cakes are not flat on top, cut off a little bit.  Use a cookie cutter similar size to the cakes to make jelly circles (slightly smaller is better than over the edges), and cover each cake with its own little jelly.    Melt the chocolate in the microwave, stirring between bursts of heat.  Don’t keep going until it is too hot, just stir and allow the heat of the chocolate to melt the last remaining bits.   Put the cakes onto a cooling rack with paper below to catch the drips and cover each little cake with chocolate, smoothing the junction over the cake and jelly bit.   My chocolate was quite cool, so it didn’t pour everywhere, and I think that worked better.   Lastly, drag a fork over the top to give that classic pattern (I forgot, so had to reheat the chocolate and drag a fork over the top).  Allow these to set before serving, if you can wait.