A gluten-free Jaffa Cake perfect for an afternoon snack. A Jaffa Cake is an English biscuit sized sponge cake with an orange jelly centre and is covered by chocolate.
The British TV series "The Great British Bake Off" has started and I am watching this like a sports show with lots of yelling at the screen as I watch it with a view to "how could I make that gluten-free". And the innuendos too amuse me. A great part of British humour being the double-entendre. The first episode had Jaffa Cakes as a task and I immediately thought of the coconut flour recipe I could use.
A Jaffa Cake is an English biscuit sized sponge cake with an orange jelly centre and is covered by chocolate. My challenge was the jelly. I tried to use a sugar-free jelly but although it had the bright orange colour that I was looking for, I did not care for the taste of artificial sweetener. So I made my own jelly. This is simple enough and although I used gelatin, you could use agar to make it vegetarian. I asked for agar in our local health food shop and was met with a blank look, so no hope of me making a vegetarian jelly here!
The net carbs are not as low as I would have hoped for and I wonder if this could be made with a topping made purely of coconut oil and cocoa powder. One to try another day. It's more a gluten free recipe and fans of coconut flour. I am delighted with the sponge though as it is pretty much like the real thing!
Another tip I will pass on is, don't put the melted chocolate over the jelly until it has cooled a bit. My first batch melted the jelly and almost gave the cakes a chocolate marble topping. All very pretty but not what I was aiming for!
I used a large muffin tin to bake 6 large cakes and cut the jelly circles with a smaller sized wine glass as I don't have any cookie cutters. You can use a regular muffin tin to make the cake sponges and a smaller cookie cutter or anything circular to cut out the jelly. It should be smaller than the cake.
I found the recipe delicious and had to show a small amount of restraint of not munching them all as the Chief Taster was away on work and would have had divorce papers in his hand at the airport when I picked him up if at least 2 were not put aside for him. It probably didn't help that I kept sending him photos of them as I was putting them together!
Jaffa Cakes
Ingredients
Jelly
- 4 oranges - 1 cup 250ml juice and rind of one orange
- 2 tblspns sugar substitute
- 1 sachet gelatin
Cake
- ¼ cup coconut flour
- 3 tblspns melted butter
- 3 eggs
- 3 tblspns sugar substitute
- ½ tspn salt
- ¼ tspn baking powder
- 1 tspn vanilla essences
Topping
- 150 g chocolate
Instructions
- Make the jelly by gently heating the orange juice and rind in a saucepan.
- Add the sugar substitute and stir thoroughly.
- Remove from the heat and sprinkle the gelatin over the juice. Stir thoroughly.
- Pour into a shallow dish (I used my glass brownie tin). You want the jelly to be about 1cm in depth.
- Place in the fridge and set for 3 hours or until firm.
- Pre-heat the oven to 200C/400F degrees.
- For the cake, whisk the melted butter and sugar substitute together.
- Add the eggs and vanilla essence and whisk until combined.
- Add the coconut flour, salt and baking powder and whisk until smooth.
- Grease a cupcake or muffin tin. I lined mine with parchment paper just for ease of popping the sponges out.
- Spoon the cake mixture into the tins and bake for 15 minutes until golden and firm.
- Remove from the tin and allow to cool
- Cut circle shapes out of the jelly, making sure that they are smaller than the cakes. A cookie cutter or glass should do it.
- Place the jelly on top of the sponges.
- Melt the chocolate in a microwave or in a bain marie.
- Set aside to cool slightly. Do not pour hot chocolate over the jelly as it will melt.
- Spoon the chocolate over the jelly and sponge.
- Allow to cool (place in the fridge for best results).
- Eat and enjoy!
Notes
Karen
Me again sorry! Where you say:
Jelly
4 oranges - 1 cup 250ml juice and rind of one orange
do you mean the zest - or the rind which you then remove from heated liquid?
thank you!
Angela Coleby
It's the zest (which I sometimes call rind!)
Karen
Hello again - i made these and they are absolutely brilliant thank you! I am just wondering if you know how far in advance I can make the jelly? How long it would keep in the fridge - or whether it can be frozen? thank you!
Angela Coleby
Happy you enjoy them! I'm not sure if the jelly could be frozen as I've not tried it. But think the jelly could be stored in the fridge for at least 3 days ahead.
Karen
Brilliant thanks v much. I am just experimenting and wondering why you prefer coconut over the almond - is it about flavour or texture or something else? I just made mine like yours with only coconut flour and they taste great but are quite crumbly. Do you have any ideas why that might be? thank you 🙂
Angela Coleby
It's just my preferred low carb flour. The texture can vary between brands and some might need a bit more moisture.
Karen
Hi there, I am going to try these tomorrow and was just curious why you chose to use all coconut flour and no almond flour? thanks 🙂
Angela Coleby
It's just because I prefer to bake with coconut flour. Almond flour would make a great base for these too though.