Easy Traditional British Jaffa Cakes Recipe

By Elaine Lemm

Updated 09/18/18

Traditional British Jaffa Cakes
Elaine Lemm
Ratings (16)
  • Total: 29 mins
  • Prep: 20 mins
  • Cook: 9 mins
  • Yield: 12 cookies (12 servings)
Nutritional Guidelines (per serving)
167 Calories
9g Fat
17g Carbs
4g Protein
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)

The traditional Jaffa cake is something of a British icon. The small biscuits have a layer of sponge, topped with a sweet orange jelly and finished off with plain chocolate (in the US, this is known as semi-sweet chocolate). In Britain, they are so easy to find and relatively cheap to buy since they are so loved.

Making the cake is easy and a lot of fun. The trickiest part is putting on the chocolate, which, if you want to make them look like the packet versions, will be practically impossible to replicate. So stop worrying about that bit, and pile on the chocolate as combined with the orange is a superb combination.

 

Ingredients

  • 1 (135-gram) orange jelly tablet
  • 1/2 cup water (boiling)
  • 3 tablespoons shredless Seville Orange marmalade
  • 1 large egg (free-range)
  • 1 ounce/25 grams caster sugar (or fine sugar)
  • 1 ounce/25 grams self-rising flour
  • 7 ounces/200 grams semi-sweet chocolate (broken into pieces)

Steps to Make It

  1. Preheat the oven to  350 F/180 C.

  2. Grease a shallow bun tin with a little of the butter and put to one side. 

  3. Break the tablet of jelly cubes and place into a heatproof bowl or jug. Cover with boiling water and stir well until the jelly dissolves. 

  4. Stir in the marmalade and put to one side to cool slightly.

  5. While the jelly is cooling, line out a 10 x 10-inch tray or Pyrex square bowl with cling film.

  6. Pour in the jelly and pop into the refrigerator to set, about 45 minutes.

  7. Place the egg and sugar into a baking bowl and using an electric hand whisk, whisk until light and creamy and pale in color.

  8. Sift the self-raising flour into the bowl and then using a metal tablespoon, fold into the egg mixture.

  9. Put a good tablespoon into each cup of the bun tin.

  10. Tap the tin gently on the worktop before popping it into the center of the preheated oven.

  11. Cook until golden and slightly firm (the sponge should spring back when pressed lightly) 8 to 10 minutes.

  12. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before removing and placing on a cooling rack.

  13. While the sponge is cooking, melt the chocolate. Put a heatproof bowl over a pan of barely simmering water. Add the chocolate and leave to melt. If you must stir, use a wooden spoon, never a metal one.

  14. Take from the heat as soon as melted and leave to cool. As the chocolate cools it will thicken and eventually harden so it may need heating slightly again when covering the cakes.

  15. Take the tray of jelly from the fridge. Lift out the clingfilm with the jelly, place onto a worktop and using a pastry cutter, cut discs of orange ever-so-slightly smaller than the cakes. Keep in the fridge until you need them.

  16. Once the cakes are completely cool, lay a disc of jelly onto the domed uppermost surface.

  17. Check the chocolate is cool, then spoon over the surface. The chocolate will run off a little but do not worry, that is the homemade look we want.

  18. Place each biscuit on the cooling rack as you complete them.

  19. Store the Jaffa cakes in an airtight tin, not in the fridge. If you put them in the fridge the chocolate will lose its shine.

  20. Eat within 5 days.

Kitchen Notes

  • Use plain chocolate, not dark chocolate. The difference is that plain (known as semi-sweet in the States) has lower cocoa solids than dark. You should be looking for a chocolate around 30 percent to 40 percent - dark can be as high as 70 percent. One brand which works well is Bournville by Cadburys. 

  • Using marmalade in this recipe gives a distinctly sharp orange flavor to the jelly; a tang which you will not find in the shop-bought ones.