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    Did somebody say "vegan jaffa cakes?"

    6 May, 2013 by Kip 11 Comments

    Ms Cupcake Cookbook Cov

    Mellissa Morgan, the inspirational woman behind the successful Ms Cupcake bakery, has finally published her highly awaited first cookbook (available from May 9). Random House kindly sent me a review copy, which I've been sitting on for ages in anticipation of its publication week, when I could finally share my excitement.

    Ms Cupcake Cookbook Pages

    Ms Cupcake Cookbook

    So here goes.

    There might already be a few vegan bakery books on the market, but this is the first major title published with the UK market in mind, complete with metric measurements (there are also imperial equivalents listed). Of course the usual suspects have been available to us over here for ages, but there is still something lost in the translation (enter my pet peeve about not weighing ingredients for baking).

    Strawberry banana muffins

    Strawberry banana muffins from the Ms Cupcake cookbook

    Admittedly I have only got around to making four recipes thus far, but in talking to others about the book I am confident in the reliability of its contents. The strawberry banana muffins were easy to make and had the lightest texture of any muffin I've ever tried. Furthermore they stayed fresh for several days and didn't take on the consistency of a cardboard (unlike many other muffin recipes I've tried). If these are anything to go by, I'd recommend any of the other muffin recipes in the book.

    And now for some cookies.

    Chocolate Chip Cookies and Deep Fried Cookie Dough

    Chocolate Chip Cookies and Deep Fried Cookie Dough

    Actually, you can't go wrong with chocolate chip cookies (probably the greatest lesson my dad has taught me), so we'll move right on to the bit where the dough gets battered and fried. That's all the description it really needs, because if the words cookie dough, battered, and fried in the same sentence aren't enough to give you a foodgasm then you probably have a medical condition for which you should seek immediate help. I mean, come on, this is the stuff dreams are made of.

    The other recipe I baked, obviously, was the Jaffa cakes (pretty sure this will be the first recipe 90% of British vegans make).

    Jaffa Cake Bases

    Jaffa cake bases cooling

    If you don't know what a jaffa cake is and are a fan of chocolate and orange, these cookies were made for you. Basically they are biscuits consisting of orange jelly on a soft cake base, with a chocolate coating on the top half. It sounds complicated, but the Ms Cupcake version is one of the easiest baked goods I've ever made, and the result is as good as its non vegan counterpart.

    Homemade Jaffa Cakes

    Ms Cupcake Jaffa Cakes

    Don't be deceived by the name, because this compilation of recipes contains more than cupcakes. Chapters include Cupcakes and Muffins, Icings and Spreads, Cakes and Loaves, Easy-Bakes and No-Bakes, Cookies, and Naughtiest of Them All (read: deep fry). There is a wonderful simplicity to the recipes, yet the finished products don't present in any way as such. On top of that, Mellissa's book promotes what I believe to be an absolute truth: baking is fun. It's awash with pictures of staff getting right down and dirty with the ingredients, and doesn't resonate with the snobbish vibe so many bakery books do; don't look for your artisanal, succulent, crafted-with-love scones with zero mile farm fresh ingredients here. I don't know about you, but I appreciate cutting through the B.S. and getting straight to the point: making fabulous goodies!

    So, without further ado (and with permission), here's the vegan jaffa cake recipe for you to try out for yourself. If you like it, and I think you will, please consider purchasing the book!

    Ms Cupcake's Jaffa Cakes

    Makes 12-15 Jaffa Cakes

    • Ingredients
      • 100g (scant 1 cup) self-raising flour
      • 60g (¼ cup + 1 tbsp) caster sugar
        100ml (1 /3 cup + 4 tsp) soya or rice milk
      • 50ml (3 tablespoon + 1 tsp) light rapeseed or other flavourless oil)
      • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or essence
    • Finishing Touches
      • 150g (¾ cup) dairy-free chocolate chips, or a bar broken into pieces
      • 50g (3 tablespoon + 1 tsp) dairy free margarine
      • grated zest of ½ orange
      • 12–15 teaspoon orange marmalade
    • Directions/Method
      1. Grease a bun tray. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4.
      2. In a medium bowl, mix together the flour and caster sugar. Add the milk, oil and vanilla, stirring until just combined. Drop a small spoonful of the batter into each of the holes in the prepared tray and bake for about 8 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool in the tray for 2 minutes before turning the bases out on to a wire rack to cool completely.
      3. Melt the chocolate and margarine in a pan on a low heat, stirring constantly until combined. Remove from the heat and add the orange zest.
      4. Once the cakes have cooled, and before removing them from the wire rack, spoon a dollop of orange marmalade on top of each one. Spoon the chocolate evenly over the cakes so that the tops are completely covered. The excess chocolate can drip through the wire rack leaving the bottoms free of chocolate. Refrigerate on the rack for about 20 minutes until set. Keep these bad boys refrigerated until you are ready to serve them

    I'd again like to extend a big thanks to Random House for sending me this book sample.

    « Vegan Finds on Nusa Penida and Lembongan
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    Reader Interactions

    I reserve the right to improve any malicious and trollish comments left below.

    Comments

    1. fat gay vegan

      May 06, 2013 at 8:30 pm

      Your photos are so pretty!

      Reply
      • Kip

        May 06, 2013 at 9:56 pm

        Thanks!

        Reply
    2. Randi

      May 08, 2013 at 1:42 am

      Thanks so much for this KippyGoo & Mellissa!

      Reply
    3. Shelley

      June 18, 2013 at 1:34 pm

      Mhhm, giant jaffa cakes are a winner down our way, raspeberry jelly ones are good too. There is another! (gasp) UK vegan cake book out there: 1066 Cake Stands Compendium of Cakes. We did our recipes in metric, imperial and cups. Available via 1066cakestand .co.uk.

      Reply
    4. Vegan John

      June 19, 2013 at 12:50 am

      Vegan Jaffa Cakes... how genius...

      Reply
    5. vegan miam

      September 29, 2013 at 6:37 pm

      Love the cookbook! Made nanaimo bars, too!

      Reply
    6. Kip

      October 09, 2013 at 12:57 pm

      The photos are gorgeous so I want to make it aaallllll

      Reply
    7. KateM

      April 04, 2014 at 5:09 pm

      i made these today at the request of my fiance - super easy recipe and looks, smell and taste amazing! Thank you!

      Reply
      • Kip

        April 05, 2014 at 11:34 am

        Excellent! Glad you like them. Ms Cupcake is a star!

        Reply
    8. I reserve the right to improve malicious and trollish comments.

    Trackbacks

    1. Bush Tea, Detectives and more Vegan WIN! | Out to Lunch says:
      23 January, 2014 at 7:09 pm

      […] why. I love baby chicks, and I do not want to be responsible for the fatal torture they endure). Messy Vegetarian Cook was totally right when she said the jaffa cakes would be the first recipe that 90% of British […]

      Reply
    2. GREAT BRITISH BAKE-OFF Technical Challenge One: Jaffa Cakes | says:
      1 September, 2016 at 3:17 pm

      […] The recipe which the contestants used was Mary Berry’s own, which is being featured on the BBC Food website here. However, I also decided that I wanted to attempt a vegan base, even though I wasn’t doing a vegan jelly, because I seem to like making things difficult for myself. I googled “vegan jaffa cake recipe” and found this one. […]

      Reply

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    Name's Kip. Some things about me: vegan, Thai food enthusiast, comfortably chaotic and disorganised, information lover, Londoner, cookbook collector, clumsy AF, rarely takes a serious photo, has never been on a diet. This is not a wellness blog.

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