Before you think I have favorites, I don’t. I love all my baking projects, but some are just fun, and that’s the case with my Jaffa cake roll.
What started as an experiment ended in one of my most popular desserts, at least with my family, and I can see why — Jaffa cakes are marvelously complex and delicious.
If you don’t know what Jaffa cakes are, allow me to explain. Jaffa cakes are British pastry snacks that have been around for almost one hundred years.
The two-biters are not what we’d call a fresh baking treat; they’re store-bought sweets that live in the realm between cookies, biscuits, and cake.
What makes Jaffa cakes special is their layered personality — they have a sponge cake-like texture, an inner orange-flavored jam, and a chocolate cover. Together, the combination of flavors is hard to match, which takes us to my Jaffa cake roll.
A “what if” became a personal challenge, and I ended up with this layered roll that mimics the flavors of an authentic Jaffa cake.
A four-part recipe
Of course, creating a convincing home-baked version of a bought one is complicated, but you get it once you separate all its parts.
I figured I’d make a thin chocolate sponge cake for texture and body, which then I’d fill first with a creamy dairy-based layer and a cookie-like firm core.
For the sponge cake, you’ll need two medium-sized bowls, one for the dry ingredients and one for the wet ones. The mixture will be the first one to hit the final baking pan too.
The creamy filling is a fun one; its crucial ingredient is vanilla pudding and lots of butter
The third element is the orange cookie filling, and mixing orange juice with vanilla wafers has been one of the most adventurous things I had done, but it tastes great!
Finally, a microwaved chocolate glaze, after all the hard work, this one’s as easy as it gets.
Reader beware
I won’t lie, this is not the easiest recipe I’ve shared with you, it takes lots of confidence, but you’ll ACE it, and you’ll have lots of fun, that I can guarantee.
Once your Jaffa cake is all rolled up and ready to serve, you’ll know your baking skills are at another level, so be proud! This one is a cake to impress, so there’s no time to waste. Let’s get started!
Jaffa Cake Roll
Ingredients
5 eggs + 1 egg yolk
6 tbsp (100g) of sugar
6 tbsp (125ml) oil
6 tbsp (100g) all purpose flour
4 tbsp (25g) cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
Filling I:
2 cups milk
2 (1.5oz) bags of Dr. Oetker vanilla pudding
8 tablespoons of sugar
3/4 cup + 2 tbsp (200g) unsalted butter
Filling II:
3 cups of ground vanilla wafers
1 cup of powder sugar
7 tablespoons (100g) of butter (melted)
1/2 cup Fanta orange juice
Chocolate glaze: 1 cup of chocolate chips and 4 tablespoons of oil microwave on high for 1 minutes. Stir until chocolate is melted.
10.5oz (300g) of Jaffa cookies
Instructions
Preheat oven to 360F. Line 12 x 16 jelly roll pan with parchment paper.
- Mix eggs, yolk, add sugar beating continuously for about 5 minutes.
- In a separate bowl whisk flour, cocoa and baking powder.
- Slowly add oil to the egg mixture, turn off mixer, add dry ingredients and mix with the robber spatula until all ingredients are incorporated.
- Spread batter in prepared pan. Bake for 12 minutes. Cool on a wire rack in a pan.
For filling I:
- Keep butter at room temperature.
- Mix pudding with 1/2 cup of milk. Pour remaining milk to the saucepan.
- Add sugar
- Bring to boil
- Add pudding mixture to the boiling milk. Lower the heat and cook until thick.
- Cover with plastic wrap and leave to cool.
- Once cooled beat with the mixer. Add soften butter little by little and mix until creamy and well blended.
For the cookie filling:
- Mix ground cookies and sugar; add melted butter. Slowly add orange juice. Depending of the wafer kind you may need little more or less juice.
Spread pudding cream over cake, leave little for the top and sides of cake roll. Spread the cookie filling along side but not over whole cake. Cut up some of the jaffa cookies and sprinkle over filling. Slowly roll the cake, spread remaining vanilla cream over and on sides. Drizzle chocolate glaze over the cake roll. Decorate with jaffa cookies.
For another fun roll, try my Milka Chocolate Cake Roll.
