Here’s a riff on the classic orange jaffa cake. Is a jaffa cake a cake or a biscuit? This was a serious question in 1991 when the tax people in the UK had to decide whether to charge VAT (value added tax) on the jaffa cake – or is it really a biscuit? VAT is payable on chocolate covered biscuits but not on chocolate covered cakes. So it was in the interests of McVities (the inventors of the original jaffa cake) to get it classified as a cake. And in the end it was decided that jaffa cakes are indeed cake – even though they are always found in the biscuit aisle in the supermarket. But, the base is sponge cake and hardens as it stales, unlike a biscuit which softens as it stales.
Jaffa cakes were first made in 1927 and in 2012 were the best selling cake/biscuit in the UK. In 2016 they featured in the Great British Bake Off, and I did actually make some orange ones then.
Of course a raspberry jaffa cake can’t really be called a jaffa cake at all as it isn’t orange…
I used this basic recipe from ever reliable Mary Berry. Then I tweaked it into a raspberry version. And I made it vegetarian, by using a packet of veggie/vegan jelly crystals. I made the jelly with less water than the packet said, and it set amazingly quickly. I added half a teaspoon of raspberry flavouring to the sponge mixture. And finally I used a delicious dark (70%) raspberry flavoured chocolate from Lidl.
Was it worth it? Yes definitely! It’s a little fiddly cutting out the jelly and covering the cakes in chocolate, but not that much. And because the jelly set so quickly and the cakes only took a few minutes to bake the whole things comes together very quickly.
Dark chocolate goes really well with raspberry. You could also make these even more upmarket by making a jelly with raspberry puree and agar flakes. I have never done this but it should be possible!
If you have a favourite jaffa cake flavour or can think of a combo that might work let me know in the comments!
Eat Cake And Run 