Jaffa cakes

Is it a cake?

Is it a biscuit?

It's a biscuit! End of. Surely if it was a cake then supermarkets would sell them with the cakes and not the biscuits? See, I told you.

But I've also discovered that Jaffa Cakes are like marmite; you either love them or hate them.

I'm in the love category. I could eat a whole box. So when I came across Simon Rimmer's recipe for them I just had to have a go. And boy am I impressed. These are so much fun to make, I will absolutely be making these again for sure and I'd say they're not actually too difficult to make. 

The "biscuit" base is essentially cake (I maintain they're still a biscuit) topped with jelly topped with chocolate. Easy!

And very very delicious. I'm only sad that I only got to eat one. This recipe makes 12 but I had lots of jelly left as I didn't pour into a small enough dish so I could probably have made double if I'd made double the cake batter. Oh well

Ingredients:

2 eggs

50g caster sugar 

50g plain flour

135g pack orange jelly (cubes)

1 tbsp marmalade 

125ml boiling water 

175g dark chocolate 

Start by making the jelly to give it time to set. In a jug, melt down the jelly cubes with the hot water and marmalade. Pour into a large dish and leave to set for a few hours or overnight. Choose a dish so the jelly is about 1cm thick.

When the jelly is set, preheat the oven to 180/160c fan and grease a 12 hole muffin tin. 

Bring a little water to the boil in a pan and let it simmer slowly while you add the eggs and sugar to a bowl suspended over the water. Don't let the bowl touch the water. Whisk the eggs with an electric whisk for a few minutes until pale in colour and very airy. Add the flour until combined and a batter is formed. Pour into the muffin tin and bake for 8-10 minutes until pale golden brown and cooked through. Leave to cool then remove from the tin gently with a knife. 

Using a round cutter smaller than the sponges, cut out pieces of jelly and sit on top.

Melt the chocolate and pour on top carefully spreading it over the jelly onto the sponge but not too much so that it drops off. It's easier than it sounds. 

Leave to set then eat!