Monthly Archives: March 2017

Jaffa Cakes

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LU Pim's

Today, Spring said “hello” through sunshine, orange blossom-scented breezes and a Mexican couple dressed in their Sunday best peddling Jesus’s resurrection door-to-door. My neighbor says it’s going to rain again tomorrow. Could Mother Nature truly be that fickle?

For today only, then, I bathe in sunbeams.

Jaffa Cakes

  • Servings: 24 cookies
  • Print
These British biscuits are a favorite of mine, but usually I succumb to the packaged variety, called Lu Pim’s in the States. It’s a textural thing – the crack of dark chocolate giving way to a gelatin layer atop a sliver of cake.

Ingredients


Gelatin Layer
– 1 pkg. gelatin (1/4 oz.)
– ½ cup fresh orange juice
– zest of 1 orange
– ¼ cup sugar
Cake Layer
– 2 large eggs
– ¼ cup sugar
– ¼ cup flour, sifted
Chocolate Layer
– 4 oz. bittersweet chocolate (at least 70% cocoa)

Directions

  1. Combine gelatin with a bit of orange juice to soften. Meanwhile, heat remaining juice, zest and sugar on a saucepan until sugar has completely dissolved. Remove from heat, add softened gelatin and stir until gelatin is dissolved. Briefly return to heat, if necessary.  Pour into a 8” square pan, cover and refrigerate until firm, about one hour. Cut gelatin in 1-1 ¼ inch circles using a small cutter.
  2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 24-cup mini muffin tin with baking spray. On top of a double-boiler, beat eggs and sugar together until pale and fluffy using a hand-held mixer, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat, gently fold in flour with a rubber spatula. Fill each muffin cup with a teaspoon dollop of batter, filling each cup no more than 1/3 full. Bake for 8-10 minutes until edges are golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan and then gentle remove cakes.
  3. Break chocolate into small pieces and heat in a microwave in 15-second bursts, stirring occasionally until ¾ melted. Remove from microwave and continue stirring until fully melted. set chocolate aside for 5 minutes to cool and stiffen slightly (this is the lazy girl’s way to temper chocolate).
  4. Place a round of orange gelatin atop each cake round. Dollop each gelatin round with chocolate and gently nudge the chocolate to the edge, fully covering the gelatin. It’s okay if the cake edges aren’t completely covered. Set aside until chocolate is fully set. Store covered for up to two days.

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Lemon Swedish Visiting Cake

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There’s nothing quite as satisfying as a cake baked in cast-iron. A friend called it “sexy.”

A cast iron pan holding a Lemon Swedish Visiting Cake with fresh lemons.

Today’s Musings:

If you put one crab in a basket, he will escape, slowly climbing his way out. On the other hand, if you put a dozen crabs in a basket and one attempts to scramble away, the other crabs will pull him back in instead of helping him escape. That’s called a Crab Mentality – anyone trying to better his circumstances or follow his dream is pulled back down by those who don’t dare try. Oftentimes those closest to us are the quickest to try to tug us back down, either because they are frightened by change, they don’t want to be left behind in their mediocrity, they’ve been tugged back one too many times themselves, or they believe there’s only a limited amount of good fortune to go around and another’s success equals their failure.

I’ve been feeling like that crab in the basket these last few months. I’m grateful to those few people in my life who don’t try to pull me back and, in fact, applaud and cheer as I slowly climb towards something great.

Today’s Recipe:

Lemon Swedish Visiting Cake

Inspired by Dorie Greenspan’s recipe.


Ingredients

  • 1 cup plus 2-3 Tablespoons sugar, divided
  • Zest of 1 lemon
  • 2 large eggs
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, melted and cooled
  • ½ cup sliced almonds
  • Powdered sugar for dusting

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350⁰ F. Grease a 9-10” cast-iron skillet with baking spray. Combine 1 cup sugar and zest together in a bowl. Using a whisk, combine well until zest is evenly distributed and sugar is moist and fragrant.
  2. Whisk in the eggs, one at a time, then salt, vanilla, and lemon juice. Gently stir in flour with a rubber spatula. Add melted butter and mix until incorporated.
  3. Pour batter into skillet. Sprinkle with sliced almonds and remaining 2-3 Tablespoons sugar over the batter. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. To caramelize the almond-sugar topping, remove skillet, heat broiler, place skillet under broiler for 1-2 minutes until almonds are golden and sugar topping has caramelized. Let cake cool for 15 minutes. Dust with powdered sugar and serve cake warm directly from the skillet.