Weekend Carnivore

Do jaffa cakes qualify as a biscuit or a cake? This quandary has been pondered with such frequency in British society that it may just rival that of the chicken and the egg. I say, stop wondering and make this amazing jaffa drizzle cake!

I have had this Jaffa Drizzle Loaf recipe in my ‘to try’ folder since I first saw it in BBC Good Food Magazine in 2006. That is a long time to hold out on a recipe. For New Year’s Eve I decided to borrow the infamous misquote from Marie Antoinette and let myself eat (the) cake. A decision made much easier by the prospect of sharing the jaffa drizzle cake recipe with a house full of party guests.

Jaffa drizzle cake recipe

It turns out that this jaffa drizzle cake was truly worth the wait. Unlike actual jaffa cakes it is very much a cake but it really does taste near exactly like like a jaffa cake. The main difference being that the cake part is ultra moist and carries just the right level of orange flavour.

Happily, the jaffa drizzle cake recipe is also one of the more simple cake recipes I have followed in recent times. All the mixing of the cake batter is done by hand with a wooden spoon. Saving me from having to get my electric mixer out. One less thing cluttering up my worktop is never a bad thing.

The only place that I, ever so slightly, strayed from the written recipe was to not so much drizzle the dark chocolate as to lather it on the top of the springy spongy orange cake. Admittedly, I did at first attempt a drizzle but it wasn’t looking as neat as I would wish for a party presentation. In the end, I resorted to just spreading the melted dark chocolate all over the top of the cake, allowing it to drizzle down the sides. I have to say, I will do it exactly the same again because once the chocolate hardened, the layer of chocolate added a lovely slight crunch to each slice of the cake.

This is certainly a keeper of a cake and I shall not be leaving it another four years before I once again make this jaffa drizzle cake recipe.

As I have said, I am not all that much of a baker. So, when Christmas baking season comes around, I am not afraid to reach for recipes that others have perfected. In fact, I think that is part of the fun of holiday baking. It is great to try out the recipes that other people love to bake. For the next few Weekend Carnivore updates, I am going to share the love and show some great Christmas baking recipes that I have learned from other people that share their recipes online.

Kahlua chocolate chunk cookie recipe

Who doesn’t love a good Christmas cookie? They don’t have to be just for the kiddies either! This Christmas cookie recipe for Kahlua chocolate chunk cookies, is one which I have been making for the past few years. I got the recipe from the lovely Kittencal over at Recipezaar. Part of what I love about her The Big Kahlua Vanilla Cookies recipe is that it is so versatile.

In the original cookie recipe, she uses white chocolate. Through the years, both through necessity and through experimentation I have tried it with all sorts of different types of chocolate but keeping the base of the cookie the same. In the end, I have settled on using a combination of milk chocolate and white chocolate. Instead of chips, I get really good chocolate bars and use a knife to make chocolate chunks.

They are a luxurious tasting Christmas cookie that has just a hint of extra richness from the Kahlua. Which means you can take something comforting and familiar and jazz it up to be something extra special for the Christmas period. A real treat just at the time of the year you want it most!

I love cooking and baking for parties because it means I get to try out new recipes and share out the calories. Otherwise, the baked goodies would just sit here willing me to allow them to jump straight on to my, already too big, belly.

Since the Christmas and New Year period is the season of parties, now is the point in the year where I do most of my baking. I save up recipes from magazines and websites all year round just for this time when I can bake and taste without feeling all that guilty about it. Though, I am fully aware that my diet will return with a vengeance in the New Year as a sort of culinary rehab.

In addition to baking and cooking the Christmas recipes of others, I also enjoy creating my own Christmas baking recipes. I am much more of a cook than a baker and I always feel a bit of shock when a baking recipe I have devised actually turns out okay. This weekend, I was met with just such a moment of shock when these mocha chocolate cupcakes turned out to be pretty darn good!

The recipe is based on the idea of a black coffee cake recipe which is in a copy of an American church cookbook from 1980 that my Nana gave to me when I turned 18. The original cake isn’t decorated at all. It is simply a cake with no topping. So, not only was I nervous about turning it into cupcakes but I also wasn’t certain a topping was going to work. Yet, it turned out to work very well indeed.

Since I was making them for a Christmas party, I used food colouring to turn the buttercream frosting festive red and green. However, you could very easily skip that stage and just use the white buttercream frosting. In fact, I think if you did that and just dusted the top lightly with cocoa powder you could call them espresso cupcakes.

For these though, I carried through the coffee theme to the top of the mocha chocolate cupcake recipe by topping each off with a chocolate covered coffee bean. That may sound a tad posh but I found a whole big bag of them on sale at lidls for £1.99. Your party guests never need to know!

Mocha chocolate cupcakes with buttercream frosting

Mocha chocolate cupcake recipe

Ingredients:

For the cupcakes:

2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup strong coffee
1 cup milk (I use semi-skimmed)

For the buttercream frosting:

1 cup butter, softened
3 1/2 cups icing sugar (same thing as powdered sugar)
1 teaspoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt

To decorate:

Chocolate covered coffee beans (optional)
Assortment of edible sprinkles (optional)

1. Preheat your oven to 35Of/180c/gas mark 4
2. Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl.
3. Add the eggs, oil, coffee and milk to the dry mix and beat on a medium speed until well combined.
4. Line a cupcake pan with papers and pour the batter into each paper. Fill about half way up or it will spill out over the top of the paper while cooking. I got 15 cupcakes from this mix. So, you may have to bake in batches depending on how many holes there are in your tin.
5. Bake for between 15 and 20 minutes or until a toothpick stuck in the middle of the chocolate cupcakes comes out ‘just moist’.
6. Take out of the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool. They need to be completely cool before you add the frosting.
7. When the mocha chocolate cupcakes are cooled, start making your buttercream frosting by putting the butter, sugar and salt in a large bowl and beat until blended.
8. Add the milk and vanilla and beat for another 3 to 5 minutes or until smooth and creamy.
9. If you want to make coloured frosting, divide your buttercream frosting recipe into as many bowls as you want colours. Then add a few drops at a time to each bowl and beat on low until combined. If you want a deeper colour add more drops until you get what you require.
10. Spread an equal amount of frosting on top of each mocha chocolate cupcake.
11. Decorate each mocha chocolate cupcake with a chocolate covered coffee bean and sprinkles, if using.

Makes: about 15 cupcakes depending on the size of your tin