It’s interesting how different regions favor varying flavor combinations. While peanut butter and jelly is a staple in the States, friends of ours in the UK think this is a strange lunchtime favorite. However, I felt the same way when I came across their meat flavored potato chips and chocolate orange biscuits. While I’m still not a huge fan of shrimp flavored chips, I fell in love with Jaffa cakes.
Tracking down Jaffa cakes can be difficult in the States so I pulled out Mary Berry’s recipe and tried making them at home. The recipe was a bit daunting, as I had never made orange jellies to adorn cookies before! To get my bearings, I read the recipe twice, took a deep breath and began baking.
Surprisingly, I only had one hiccup! Traditional Jaffa cakes have orange jellies that are slightly smaller than the biscuit. Since I didn’t want to run out to the store to buy a small circle cookie cutter, I used a mini muffin tin for both the biscuits and jellies – making them the same size. At the end of the day this isn’t a deal breaker, but I’m sure Paul and Mary would have a few comments if I were to present these on the Great British Bakeoff!