Jaffa Cakes

I love baking, but mostly I stick to tried and tested recipes that I know will work.

However, last week, for no reason whatsoever, I decided I wanted to make Jaffa Cakes.

It took me a few days (due to laziness more than anything) to get all the ingredients and I started making them the other night. I used Good Food's recipe and it was pretty easy (to start with - read on...). They took a while to make, but not because they were difficult, simply because everything needs time to cool down (cakes) and set (jelly).

The batter is a little unfamiliar to me and probably needs a bit of work after my first attempt, but it was perfectly edible. For 12 cakes, you should place a bowl over a pan of simmering water and mix in 2 eggs, 2oz plain flour and 2oz caster sugar until you have a thick but light batter. This took around 5 minutes for me, but I need to do some research into this as maybe I should have stooped sooner or carried on for longer. As I said, the cakes weren't quite right.

Then, you simply grease a muffin tray and scoop the batter into the holes, leaving them in the oven for 8-10 minutes, before letting them cool.

While they're in the oven, you can make the yummy orange jelly using a normal sized pack of jelly as well as a tablespoon of orange marmalade and boiling water. According to Good Food's recipe, you need 125ml of water, however, I found that this wasn't enough to melt the jelly so added a bit more, as well as a bit more marmalade - it tasted good to me, but the consistency was a little wobblier than your usual Jaffa Cakes.

Then comes the waiting. The cakes need to cool and the jelly needs to set. Next time, I'd probably make the jelly the night before - save waiting around.

After everything is cool and set, you need to cut the jelly into 12 small circles, slightly smaller than the cakes themselves.


Then, came the mess. Oh the chocolatey messy mess.

In hindsight, simply placing a sheet of baking paper on the worktop before pouring the chocolate over the cakes, would have made life a lot easier. Ah well, I learnt my lesson.

They weren't pretty but boy they were good!

After chatting with colleagues about this mess, one of them came up with an amazing solution, something that should get these to look better. Next time I plan to set the jelly in a muffin tray, so that the jelly is already in 12 perfect circles. I also, plan to leave the cakes in the tin to cool, so that when I pour over the chocolate, I should hopefully get a better finish as the chocolate won't dribble down everywhere. Clever ay?


I haven't tried this yet though, so if you have any tips - let me know. I can't wait to have a go at them again.