The Jaffa Cake That's Not a Jaffa Cake But Kinda Looks Like a Jaffa Cake and Tastes Like a Jaffa Cake!?!

Well...That's our Finn's take on it anyway!

                                                Apparently perfect for your "tree stump table".

Now these are a new one on us.  Jaffa Cakes have always been a favourite in our house. We eat A LOT of them. Especially Val! Jaffaholic!! After eating eleventy billion of them the inevitable "cake or biscuit" question came up. Er....um....cake! No, biscuit! No cake!! Definitely cake!! Isn't it? Well after today I have decided that they are stale cake...Maybe. Anyway, it prompted us to have a punt at making our own.

Dead easy! Genoise cake shaped with a cookie cutter and cut to the right depth with a sharp unserrated knife. There's your cake base...no, biscuit base...no wait...cake base! This is DEFINITELY a cake base. Place them in cupcake cases or a cupcake tin.

Make some orange jelly up in a large tray. keep it shallow. Only about 3 or 4mm. When set, shape with the cookie cutter and place on the bis...cake base. This is up for negotiation in my opinion. I know they're "Jaffa" cakes but why not strawberry or raspberry? Whatever works for you. Or add some marmalade to the orange jelly to make it a little tangier?

Last up, melt some chocolate in a bowl over a saucepan of boiling water on your hob. Milk chocolate for sweeter, dark for the authentic style. Let the choccy set and your done. Don't over do it though. Tempting as it is to go heavy on the chocolate, it will overpower the other flavours. There is the mistake we made with batch 1. It was this and the soft moist base that prompted Finn's interesting take on them. Does it matter? Not according to the kids! Just different and it was thumbs up from all 3!

                                          He may not be convinced what it is but he still likes it!

That's right...All 3!!! Even gluten free Maddie! And she has a cold so is finding the whole world annoying today!

                                             Jaffa Cakes! They wont cure a cold but they will
                                                           help make you feel better!!!

So...Gluten and dairy free then? Yup. And how lovely to see Mads enjoying them with her brother and sister!!! We learned something here.  For the standard cakes we used a readily available dark choclate in a red pack made by a company normally associated with purple. You with me? This brand uses dairy but we thought it would be the best option as its not overly bitter. We were wrong!! For the gluten and dairy version we used a 70% cacao from the other well known brand which is usefully dairy free.  The bitterness is a wonderful contrast to the sweetness of the jelly.

OK, so the Genoise recipe:

7 eggs
250g of caster sugar
225g of plain or gluten free flour
90g of unsalted butter or dairy free spread (melted and cooled to soften)
 1tsp of vanilla

Right. Grease a couple of cake tins an dust with flour and pre-heat your oven to 180 celsius.

Beat eggs, vanilla and sugar in a mixer until thick and frothy.  Patience now, this may take 10 minutes or so.

Sift the flour in and fold in.

Pour the butter slowly down the side of the bowl and mix.

Split the mix into the tins and stick 'em in the oven for 20 minutes.

Usual tricks here, light golden brown and if you can poke a sharp knife in and it comes out clean its done. Word to the wise on this one, don't get nosey too early.  If you open the oven before its close to done it will deflate like a punctured spacehopper!

Place on a rack and allow to cool.

                                             Vale loving the Jaffa!!! Can't leave Girlybird out.

The Best bit about this recipe is you can get the kids involved. Our 3 were going mad with the cookie cutters and eating most of the jelly before it got anywhere near the cake! What a perfect Saturday afternoon!!

Have a go. Make a mess. Enjoy life. Then pay them £1.50 to clean up after. LOL

Love & kisses

Suzi. xx