Even if you're not a jaffa cake fan, you need to try this version. Tart rhubarb jelly sits beneath creamy white chocolate on a vanilla brown butter sponge. I used regular outdoor grown rhubarb for the photos and still got a vibrant jelly - if you use forced rhubarb earlier in the season, the jelly will be even more of a shocking pink.
Ingredients
For the jelly
230g rhubarb, cut into 3cm cubes
45g golden caster sugar
finely grated zest of half a small orange
150ml water
3 leaves gelatine
For the cakes
40g butter, browned and cooled
60g icing sugar
20g plain white flour
40g ground almonds
seeds of half a vanilla pod
pinch salt
2 large egg whites, lightly beaten
To finish
120g white chocolate, roughly chopped
Instructions
Start by making the jelly. Line a tin or tupperware approximately 18cm square with cling film. In a medium saucepan, place the rhubarb chunks in a single layer. Scatter over the sugar and orange zest then pour over the water.
Bring to the boil then immediately reduce the heat and simmer for 8 minutes, or until the rhubarb is tender and gives easily when a knife is inserted. Meanwhile, soak the gelatine in a small bowl of cold water.
Remove the rhubarb from the heat and strain into a clean bowl through a piece of muslin. Allow the juice to drip slowly through - don't be tempted to squeeze or your jelly may go cloudy.
Return the rhubarb juice - you should have about 200ml - to the saucepan and gently heat. Squeeze any excess water out of the gelatine then stir into the warm liquid until dissolved. Strain into your prepared tin or tupperware and refrigerate until set, around 2 hours.
To make the cakes, measure out 30ml of the brown butter and set aside. Use the rest to grease a 12-hole muffin tin. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C fan.
Sift the icing sugar and flour into a bowl, then whisk in the ground almonds, vanilla seeds and salt. Add the egg whites and brown butter and whisk to a thick batter.
Divide the batter between your muffin tin holes and bake for 9 - 12 minutes, until the cakes are lightly golden round the edges and firm to the touch. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely in the tin.
When the jelly has set, use a 4cm round cutter to cut out discs. Carefully place one ddisc of jelly on top of each cooled cake.
To finish the cakes, melt the chocolate in a heat-proof bowl suspended over a pan of barely simmering water, then leave to cool for 10 minutes - if it's too hot it will melt the jelly. Carefully spoon 1 - 2 teaspoons of chocolate over the top of each jelly disc, coating the top of each cake. Leave to firm up at room temperature.
The cakes will keep in an airtight container for 2 days.
Notes
Adapted from the Jaffa Orange Cakes in my cookbook (!), Homemade Memories.
Recipe by thelittleloaf at http://www.thelittleloaf.com/2015/05/14/rhubarb-white-chocolate-jaffa-cakes-a-video/