Jaffa Cake Cupcakes

I'm rapidly approaching my 30th birthday and, as a celebration, am hosting a small tea party. It's a 'bring your own' where everybody contributes to the food or drink (mainly to keeps costs down).

Among my contribution will be these delicious Jaffa Cake style cupcakes. For me they are the perfect desert, the cake is light and fluffy, the chocolate is crisp and the orange center is sweet and tangy. Yum!

Ingredients:


Margarine or softened butter (I prefer Stork or Flora)
Self raising flour (sifted)
Caster sugar
2 Eggs
Zest of 1 orange (plus 1 tablespoon of the juice if you like)
Thick shred marmalade
Your preferred choice of chocolate


Pre-heat your oven to 200°C fan/180°C/gas mark 6

Recipe:

The first part of this recipe is a basic fairy cake/cupcake recipe. Simple yet delicious, so light and fluffy. My grandma taught me this recipe and I've used it for the past 20 years.

Beat the sugar and margarine (or butter) in a bowl until creamy, you can use an electric whisk (which is much easier) but i prefer to beat by hand. Whisk the eggs into the mixture.

Little by little gently fold in the flour using a metal spoon, its important to fold the flour as it keeps the mixture light and airy.

Add the orange zest and a tablespoon of the juice if you like, don't add too much or the mixture will be too wet.

Spoon the mixture into cupcake cases (I like mine bigger so I use muffin cases).

Bake in preheated oven for 15-20 minutes until the cakes have risen and are golden brown.
Place on a wire rack to cool.

Now for the fun part...

Once cool cut a small circle out of the top, add a teaspoon of thick shred marmalade (you can use thin shred or shredless if preferred) then replace the top.

Melt the chocolate either in the microwave (in short bursts being very careful not to burn it) or using a Bain-Marie.
Spoon the chocolate onto the top of the cakes until they are completely covered. Then place them in the fridge to cool and harden.

As an alternative you can cut the top and add the marmalade while the cakes are still warm and serve with warm melted chocolate, I did this and they were delicious!

If you like this recipe, why not visit my 'Sweet Treats' page for more yummy treats!

Chocolate Tiffin Recipe (no bake)

I first discovered chocolate tiffin at a Costa Coffee cafe in the UK and fell in love with it instantly. I've made this a few times and think I've finally found the perfect balance of ingredients.

This recipe serves around 10 depending on how big you cut the squares (the bigger the better in my opinion).

It's really simple and requires no baking, just a cook-top and a fridge (or log fire and cold box if you happen to be camping).

Ingredients:

125g butter (or hard margarine) cut into small chunks

3 heap tbsp cocoa powder

3 heap tbsp golden syrup (I like to add an extra squeeze for good luck)

2 tbsp caster sugar

200g broken digestive biscuits (ideally you want mainly small chunks with some crumbs)

2 handfuls sultanas or raisins

200g of your favourite chocolate for topping

You'll also need; a saucepan, small-medium size baking tray lined with either grease-proof paper or cling film and a medium size bowl.

Recipe:

Melt the butter, syrup, sugar and cocoa powder over a low-medium heat, stirring regularly until smooth, taking care not to burn the mixture.

Once smooth, remove from the heat, add broken biscuits and sultanas (or raisins) and mix until the biscuits are well covered.

Spoon the mixture into your lined baking tray and press down to flatten, you can make the tiffin as thick as you like, it doesn't have to fill the tin completely.

Allow the mixture to cool a little now while you melt your chocolate, you can either do this in a microwave (spurts of 30 seconds at a time, stirring in between to ensure the chocolate doesn't burn) or over a bain-marie as shown in my Mars Bar Cornflake Cake recipe.

Now simply pour the melted chocolate over the mixture and pop it in the fridge for 1-2 hours. 

Then cut the tiffin into chunks and eat!

This photo is a last minute addition - I've just had a piece and yep... Best recipe yet! Delicious!

If you like this recipe, why not check out my new recipe for Jaffa Cake Cupcakes!

Mars Bar Cornflake Cakes

For Easter this year my mum is arranging a 'buffet' style lunch for our family. My contribution will be Mars Bar cornflake cakes.
I love baking and wanted to trial the recipe first - partly to make sure the recipe worked but mainly because I love cornflake cakes and just couldn't wait until Easter weekend.

They were delicious and I cant wait to make them again.

Here's the Recipe...

(makes 8 large or 12 small cakes)

Ingredients:

3 standard size Mars Bars
100g Milk Chocolate (preferably Cadbury's Dairy Milk)
50g Unsalted butter
2 tablespoons Golden Syrup
150g cornflakes
75g sultanas, raisins or mixed nuts (optional)

Ingredients...

Recipe:

Melt the Mars Bars slowly over a bain-marie on a low/medium heat - be careful not to boil the water or the chocolate in the bottom of the bowl will burn, mix constantly.

Bain-marie...

When the Mars Bars have started to melt add the Dairy Milk and butter gradually, again mix constantly to keep the mixture from burning. 

Once the mixture has fully melted add the Golden Syrup (the consistency will still be quite thick because of the nougat).

Mixture...

Next add the cereal, I'm using cornflakes but you can use Rice Crispies if you prefer (also my bain-marie bowl wasn't big enough to mix in the cereal so i had to transfer the mixture to a larger bowl).

Then finally add the sultanas, raisins or nuts (or all three if you want to go really wild).

Now the cornflakes are covered in the chocolate mixture spoon into cupcake cases, as I said at the top this mixture should make 8 large or 12 small cakes.

Put the cakes on a tray and place on a shelf in the fridge, ensuring the tray is level.

Now we play the waiting game...

The length of time you leave the cakes to set depends on how sticky you want them, I like them quite sticky so only left them for around an hour, then covered them and left them out at room temperature until we were ready to eat them (more or less straight away). 

End result...

If you like you could melt a little more of the dairy milk and add a dollop on top of each cake with a few mini-eggs for that added 'Easter' feel.

All that's left to do now is tuck in. Enjoy!

If you like this recipe, why not check out my new recipe for Jaffa Cake Cupcakes!

Recipe ideas taken from:

Nigella Lawsons Mars Bar Cake
http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/mars-bar-cake-1847

and

 "Cupcakes from the Primrose Bakery" by Martha Swift.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cupcakes-Primrose-Bakery-Martha-Swift/dp/1856268470