The place I most hate to be in in my house is the kitchen. Nopes, not for me - I'm no Nigella by any scope, and certainly not a domestic goddess by far or near!
Still, what do you do when it turns out you have 2 men (occasionally 3) who are total foodies at your place? And no, they don't cook (without turning said kitchen into a bombed out zone). What you do then is turn your nose up all you want, deep breathe for 15 minutes to give you the confidence, and you stroll into that damn kitchen and prepare food. Urghh! I. Hate. Cooking!
That being said, I'll also admit I'm thrifty. I mean, come on - buy prepared food/cakes/cookies and get totally ripped off of a) my husband's heard-earned money (one breadwinner household here, folks) and b) our health. Have you seen how much fat and sugar there is in those prepared store cakes? Not to mention that they drown what passes for cake under layers of butter and icing sugar cream??? Prepared food - don't mention the fat, and the salt!
What then happens is you really gotta get yourself in gear and cook healthy stuff, even if the cooking will kill you.
So, on that intro, here's how I went looking for Jaffa Cakes' recipe. We absolutely love eating Pim's, but only 12 little cakes (so inconsequential really you have no idea you've eaten one after you're done...) for about 85 bucks minimum (roughly $2.50 for the US-ans). I can actually cook 12 Jaffa Cakes (and you actually get a 'cake' to eat!) for half that amount!
Here's the recipe, the original of which can be found at the BBC Food's site and which I somewhat adapted to my thrifty ways. :)
Homemade Jaffa Cakes
Makes 12 - can be stretched to 20 if you like really thin cakes
Ingredients
2 eggs
50g flour
50g sugar
Vanilla extract/essence
Marmalade (or any other jam if you don't have the orange one. Though it's true the 'real' jaffa cake is in orange flavour) Tip - store it in the fridge and take it out just before you'll dollop it on the cakes.
100g Dark chocolate
30g butter
Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.
Grease a 12-hole muffin tin. You can also grease a second such tin so you get 20 'moulds', since the batter can be stretched if you like really thin cakes. 12 holes-pan gives a cake that's about an inch thick.
In a double boiler, or if, like me you don't own one (and are no Nigella!), get a bowl that fits over a pan. Place the pan on the heat, and add just enough water so that the base of the bowl doesn't touch the water when you place it on the pan. Bring the water to steady boil.
In bowl, break eggs, add sugar and vanilla essence.
Place bowl over boiling water pan and whisk until the mixture doubles up and turns pale yellow and very fluffy.
Take bowl off heat, sift flour directly into bowl. Place bowl back over heat and whisk just until all the flour is incorporated.
Take bowl off heat. Scoop a tablespoonful into each muffin hole, until batter is used up.
Bake for 8-10 mins (mine always takes more time, about 15 at least, but this could be due to my oven).
Take out and let cool. Remove the 'cakes' from the tin and place on a tray/baking sheet/plate.
When cool, place a teaspoon of marmalade over every cake disk.
Again using the double boiler (or if you have a microwave oven!), melt the chocolate. Be very careful no water gets into the chocolate or it'll become a thick unmanageable mass. I usually add butter to the chocolate in a 1:3 ratio to stretch out the chocolate and make it easier to handle too.
Cover marmalade-laden cakes with the melted chocolate.
Place tray/baking sheet/plate in the fridge so the chocolate hardens, as the jaffa cake choc shell should be hard and crackly when you bite into it.
There you are - homemade Jaffa Cakes. Easy and very cheap to make. :) Needless to tell you, I no longer buy the store stuff now.
From Mauritius with love,
Zee
2 comments:
Cooking is always last on my list too. Which is why its usually half an hour before bed and I'll suddenly realize I need to eat.
Lol Trish. The men here start screaming bl**dy famine an hour before meal time. Just plain awful!
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