Unlike these Blood Orange Jaffa Cakes I made, blogging consistently the first few months of the year doesn’t seem to be my jam! With the craziness of tax season and the inevitable germ fest I get caught up in, life just gets nutty and I always seem behind. I realised it had gotten bad when I had only managed one journal entry for this month in my bullet journal.
I had this past Sunday off and it was time for grooving to good music and bake in the kitchen. It was a beautiful sunny day and it was wonderful to take a break from the stress and just enjoy myself. On deck was the Fruit Cake that my husband loves. But I wanted to make another treat for him. He loves Jaffa Cakes and it’s one the of treats his mum packs when she visits. I get the McCoys and he gets Jaffa Cakes, it’s lovely! His mum had clipped a recipe for Jaffa Cakes from the iNews paper for us. I made a few adjustments to the recipe because I wanted to use blood oranges and it calls for 40g of butter, which is great except it said to set aside 30ml for the recipe and use the remainder for greasing the muffin tin. There wasn’t any extra butter so I used spray oil.
Technique for Blood Orange Jaffa Cakes:
This is not a difficult recipe to make but it is time consuming so it’s a perfect weekend bake.
The Jelly:

Squeeze the two oranges and set aside. Combine the water, sugar and orange peel in a saucepan.

Bring to a boil and then simmer until the liquid has reduced about 50%. This will take 10 or 15 minutes.

Strain the mixture into a bowl.

Add the gelatin powder and stir until fully incorporated. Make sure the syrup is still quite warm. I found it cooled off too quickly and didn’t incorporate fully. It still worked but at the end the centre was more set than the edges. So make sure you can keep it warm enough.

Pour then orange juice into the syrup and mix well.

Line a 18cm/8in square pan with cling film and strain the mixture into the pan.

Chill in the fridge for at least two hours so it sets properly.
Baking the cake:
Preheat the oven to 375F/190C.
Brown the butter in a small saucepan.

This part can be tricky. The butter can quickly go from a golden colour to full on brown. Don’t panic, as long as it doesn’t taste burnt and keeps the toasted, nutty flavour. Let the butter cool while getting the other ingredients together.
Sift the sugar and flour together.

Using a whisk, incorporate the almond flour and orange zest into the flour and sugar.

Lightly beat the egg whites. Add that along with the salt and butter. Mix well with the whisk.

Spoon the batter into a 12 hole muffin tin that has been lightly greased. Bake 9-12 minutes until golden round the edges and is springy to the touch. Cool completely before turning the cakes out.

Place the jelly with the cling film on the counter and using a 4cm/1 1/2in cookie cutter. Place the cut jelly onto the centre of each cake.

Melt the chocolate and spoon it over the top of the cakes.

Let the chocolate set and enjoy! The only bad thing about this recipe is that it only makes 12 cakes!

Blood Orange Jaffa Cakes
A traditional recipe with a twist.
Ingredients
Blood Orange Jelly
- 60 grams caster sugar
- 120 ml water
- orange zest from 1 blood orange
- 1 packet powdered gelatine
- 100 ml blood orange juice
Cake
- 40 grams browned butter
- 60 grams icing/powdered sugar
- 20 grams all purpose flour
- 40 grams ground almonds or almond flour
- orange zest from 1 blood orange
- 2 egg whites, lightly beaten
- a pinch of salt
Chocolate to top the cake
- 120 grams dark or semi-sweet chocolate
Instructions
Blood Orange Jelly
-
Bring the water, sugar and orange zest to a boil. Simmer until the liquid has reduced 50%. Takes about 10-15 minutes.
-
Strain the syrup into a bowl and add the gelatine. Mix until dissolved. Add the blood orange juice. Line a 18cm/8 in square pan with cling film. Strain the mixture into the pan. Chill for 2 hours.
Making the cake
-
Preheat the oven 190C/375F.
Grease a 12 hole muffin tin.
-
Brown the butter and let cool.
-
Sift the sugar and flour together. Whisk in the almond flour and orange zest. Add the egg whites, salt and browned butter. Using the whisk, incorporate the ingredients well.
-
Spoon the batter evenly between the 12 muffin holes.
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Bake 9-12 minutes until the edges are golden and the sponge is springy to the touch. Allow to cool completely before turning out of the muffin tin.
Assembling the Blood Orange Jaffa Cakes
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Using the 4cm/1 1/2in cookie cutter, cut out the jelly and place on the cakes. Melt the chocolate and spoon over the cakes. Let set and serve.