Vegan Jaffa Cakes
Vegan jaffa cakes - fluffy sponge cake topped with orange jelly and coated in chocolate. This vegan version of the classic British cake/biscuit is easy to make and so tasty!
Servings 12 jaffa cakes
Ingredients
Jelly:
- 230 ml (scant cup) orange juice
- ¾ teaspoon agar agar powder (not flakes)
- 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
- 40 g (3 Tablespoons) caster or granulated sugar
Sponge Cakes:
- 75 g (½ cup + 2 Tablespoons) plain (all-purpose) flour
- 5 g (½ Tablespoon) cornflour (cornstarch)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 50 g (¼ cup) caster sugar
- 80 ml (⅓ cup) unsweetened non-dairy milk
- 30 ml (2 Tablespoons) neutral oil (such as sunflower)
- 1 teaspoon orange extract
- 125 g (4 ½ oz) dark chocolate finely chopped
Instructions
- Start by making the jelly. Line a 20cm/8in square cake tin with baking parchment. Place the agar agar powder in a saucepan and gradually whisk in the orange juice, making sure that there are no lumps.
- Whisk in the lemon juice and sugar then bring the mixture to a boil. Boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Pour the jelly into the tin and refrigerate until set (about 1 hour).
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/350°F/gas mark 4. Grease a 12 hole bun or muffin tin.
- Sift together the plain flour, cornflour and baking powder into a bowl. Add the sugar, milk, oil and orange extract and whisk with a balloon whisk until smooth.
- Divide the batter between the tin, about 1 Tablespoon of batter per hole. Bash the tin on the counter to burst any air bubbles.
- Bake for 12 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre of one of the cakes comes out clean.
- Let the cakes cool in the tin for 5-10 minutes then carefully turn them out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- Once the jelly is set, use a 4cm round cutter to cut out circles.
- Use a sharp serrated knife to trim the tops of the cooled cakes to level them. Place a jelly circle on top of each cake.
- Melt the chocolate, either in short bursts in the microwave, or in a bowl over a pan of gently simmering water (don't let the bottom of the bowl touch the water).
- Use a teaspoon to spread a little melted chocolate over the top of each cake, making sure that the jelly is fully enclosed.
- Use the back of a fork to gently make an indentation in the top of the chocolate (optional, purely for looks) then leave them to set before serving.
Notes
- See post above for tips, details and step-by-step photos.
- All of my recipes are developed using grams, and as with all of my baking recipes I really do recommend using the metric measurements with a digital scale rather than the cup coversions. Cups are a wildly inaccurate measuring system and you will get far better, more consistent results using a scale, not to mention that it is also easier and less messy than cups!
- The jelly recipe makes more than you will need for the jaffa cakes. If you have more than one muffin or bun tin then you can make 1 ½ times the sponge recipe to make 18 jaffa cakes which will use most of the jelly. Increase the chocolate to 150g if doing this.
- If you want the chocolate to be smoother, shinier and less melty then you will need to temper it. I don't bother.
- Recipe adapted from Ms. Cupcake, The Naughtiest Vegan Cakes In Town.