Go Back
Homemade Jaffa Cakes
Oh so much better than McVities - homemade Jaffa Cakes! Light and sweet orange sponge topped with a fresh orange jelly and coated with chocolate. A perfect tea time (or lunch box) treat.
Servings: 24
: 95 kcal
Author: Just Jo
Ingredients
For the jelly
  • 150 ml freshly squeezed orange juice
  • 30 g caster sugar
  • 3 small sheets of leaf gelatine* mine are approx 2x4 inches
For the sponges
  • 70 g very soft butter
  • 100 g caster sugar
  • 100 g self-raising flour
  • 2 small eggs
  • 2 tbsp milk room temp
  • 1 tsp orange zest
For the topping
  • 100 g dark chocolate chips
  • 30 g milk chocolate chips
Equipment
  • A shallow dish to set the jelly in
  • A whoopie pie tin 12 wells to a tin
  • A 2-3cm round cookie cutter
  • Oil to grease with sunflower or rapeseed in a spray are the best as they are flavourless and give a nice thin, even coating
Instructions
  1. Make the jelly first to allow as long as possible for it to set – ideally overnight in the fridge.
  2. Soak the gelatine sheets in a bowl of cold water. Heat the orange juice and sugar until it just comes to the boil then take off the heat, pick up the gelatine and squeeze it gently before dropping into the hot juice. Stir to dissolve.
  3. Pour into a greased dish small enough to give you about 3-4mm jelly. I use rapeseed oil as it has little flavour to it to grease my dish. Cover and refrigerate until set.
  4. Make the sponges. Preheat the oven to 180°C and grease the whoopie pie tin lightly.
  5. Put all the sponge ingredients into a bowl and beat together with a wooden spoon until well mixed – don’t over beat and if in doubt, zap the butter in the microwave to soften as it won’t mix well unless it is very soft.
  6. Scoop 1½ tbsp batter onto each well of the prepared whoopie pie tin and bake the first 12 sponges for 8 minutes. Do not over bake – they will brown more around the edges than the middle and you want them still to be moist, not over-baked and dry.
  7. Cool on a rack and clean the tin up before you make the remaining 6-8 sponges in the same way as step 6.
  8. When cool, turn upside down and cut out discs of jelly and place one on each sponge.
  9. Melt your chocolates together (I am lazy these days and do 20-30 second zaps in the microwave, stirring well each time until just melted). Leave to stand for a few minutes as the hot chocolate could melt the jelly if it’s used straight away. You can use all dark chocolate if you prefer.
  10. Using a teaspoon, pour on a little melted chocolate directly onto the jelly and swirl it gently with the point of the spoon to cover all the jelly and the exposed 2-3mm rim of sponge all the way around. Once you’ve done all 18, you can patch up any exposed jelly if you were too impatient to let the choccie cool first time around! I don’t blame you… Eat once the chocolate has fully cooled and set.
Recipe Notes

Vegetarians may wish to use 2/3 tsp agar instead of the gelatine - just whisk it not the hot juice and continue as per the recipe.