A birthday bake for Mr B – Homemade Jaffa Cakes

It was Mr B’s birthday this week and as he hadn’t really asked for anything in particular I decided that a birthday bake would be a lovely surprise for when he got home from work. We are both massive foodies and complement each other really well in the kitchen – his cooking skills are far superior to mine and he regularly produces the most delicious dinners for us. Baking is, of course, more my forte and my skills in this area are, I think, one of the main reasons he married me!

Instead of baking a traditional birthday cake this year, I decided to reproduce one of his favourite sweet snacks – Jaffa Cakes, something which he can quite easily demolish a box of if given the chance. I love the idea of trying to recreate a homemade version of a shop-bought snack as I know that the end result is ultimately going to be better as there won’t be any artificial flavourings or preservatives in it so it will be so much more tasty.

By pure chance I didn’t even have to search for a recipe, as one of my favourite foodie bloggers Jo from Every Nook and Cranny just happened to share her recipe for Jaffa Cakes on her Facebook page in the week running up to hubby’s birthday. With my baking I always try to use the best ingredients and it was definitely worth the extra money I spent on buying the best oranges I could find (in this case from Waitrose) as the jelly was made from the pure juice, freshly squeezed from these delicious fruits. We are lucky at home that we have a masticating juicer and so I was able to extract a lot of juice from each orange and only needed to use 2 as they were very juicy but even if you don’t have a juicer, a traditional hand press squeezer (the metal kind most of us have in the kitchen) is perfectly fine but might mean you end up using a few more oranges than I did. I certainly wouldn’t suggest cheating and using pre-squeezed juice as the fresh produces a really rich flavour which is definitely worth the effort.

Ready to make orange jelly 

Definitely worth the effort – look at that delicious juice 

I had thought that it might be a little bit fiddly to create these delicious snacks but actually it was surprisingly easy albeit a little time consuming as the three distinct steps – making the jelly, baking the sponge bases and covering these in melted chocolate each took a little bit of time and required some patience as the sponges needed to be cool and the chocolate not too hot before it could over the jelly.  As recommended by Jo I chose to use a ‘whoopie pie’ pan to make the sponges as it created a flatter bake. I found a mould fairly cheaply on Amazon as I didn’t already have one and would say it is really worth investing in if you plan to make these again (which I certainly will) as you wouldn’t get the correct shaped bases otherwise.  I will, however, share my handy tip for finding a cutter that is small enough for the jelly discs that sit on top, if like me you don’t have one – use a lid from an empty spice jar, it was the perfect size.

Perfect golden discs – and only 8 minutes to cook them!

Perfect jelly discs made with my make-shift spice lid cutter

Once all the steps are prepared – jelly set, sponges cooled and chocolate melted, the fun really begins as the Jaffa Cakes finally come to life as these separate parts are combined. I approached this final step with trepidation as I wanted them to turn out perfect however it was much easier than I expected thankfully. I finished them about an hour before Mr B came home from work which was just enough time for the chocolate to set. I am so pleased with the results and can happily report that Mr B loved them too and they are almost all gone only a day later!

 

Just like the real thing – only better as they are homemade

If you haven’t already checked out Jo’s blog I thoroughly recommend it – I regularly head there for baking inspiration for and am never disappointed. As well as sharing recipes for sweet treats she also has some delicious savoury recipes if that is more your thing so grab a cup of something warm and get yourself over there to see what you can find.