My son is obsessed with Jaffa Cakes and if I didn’t stop him would happily wolf his way through multi packs of the stuff.  If he is ever with me in the supermarket he always asks if we can have a packet of Jaffa Cakes in the trolley.  I do occasionally treat him but every now and again I wish he liked biscuits that I didn’t like, like Fig Rolls!  Then I wouldn’t be tempted to eat any!

He spotted me looking through my brand new copy of the Hummingbird Bakery’s “Home Sweet Home” recipe book that has only been published a few days.  In the first chapter of the book  which is devoted to Cupcakes, there is a collection of cupcakes based upon traditional biscuit flavours such as Custard Creams and Jammy Dodgers.  These are very involved recipes as they require you to make the mini cookies first, then add them to the cupcakes.  A bit like a two in one treat.

Rob noticed the very first recipe in the book was for Jaffa Cake Cupcakes and although it is possible to make your own Jaffa cakes (something I have not yet attempted) this recipe used ready made mini ones, the sort you get in lunchbox snack packs.  He asked if I could bake some and as we were at home on Sunday afternoon all day while my hubby was out motor racing, I thought well why not?  I asked if he wanted to help me. At first he said yes he would and I was looking forward to some mother-son baking time.  Just as I was looking out the cupcake cases his friend knocked on the door asking if he could play out. That put an end to baking with me but at least he was happy!

First, I made some vanilla sponge cupcakes in the usual fashion. This was done in my trusty KitchenAid mixer.  I chose to bake them as the picture in the book suggested, in some gold foil cupcake cases to add a pretty contrast to the chocolate colour.

Once the cupcakes had cooled down I started to add the orange marmalade filling. This was done with a cupcake corer which I had bought from my local hardware shop.  I found it a bit fiddly at first but got the hang of it by the time I got to the last one.  The marmalade was some I had left over from last year, a bit too sweet but a good way of using it up.

The chocolate icing was made by using cocoa powder, icing sugar, butter and milk mixed together. I used my hand mixer to do this and it became quite runny.  It was a bit runny when I tried to iced the cupcakes in the Hummingbird style.  As this made it sloppy I decided to do it my own way and hope that it worked out for the best.  It looked ok but not as professional as the Hummingbird ones. Usually to keep my icing neat on my cupcakes I make to order I pipe it on in a swirl with a star shaped nozzle.

The recipe made 12 cupcakes but the bag had 22 mini Jaffa cakes in them.  I gave them to my son and his friend to share out.  He said they tasted horrible and weren’t “proper” Jaffa cakes. They werent. they were Sainsbury’s own brand ones, but I thought they were fine.

The verdict:  The finished cupcakes looked gorgeous and good enough to eat.  I cut one up and decided to taste a mouthful.  To be honest, even though I have a sweet tooth I found it too rich for me.  The marmalade was very sweet and sickly, the chocolate was too much along with the mini Jaffa cake. The sponge part tasted ok though and I could taste the vanilla flavouring.  My son didn’t like the marmalade either.  He ate his Jaffa cake off the top and licked all the chocolate but left the sponge and marmalade.  What a shame.

Would I make this recipe again? Sadly, I think not unless I can tweak it a bit to make it less sweet and sickly.

Happy Baking!

Love Sam xx