“Jaffington” cupcakes for National Cupcake Day

You might remember last month when I announced that today, February 24th, is Canada’s Second National Cupcake Day for SPCAs and Humane Societies. That’s right it’s a day all about cupcakes. About using cupcakes to raise money to help SPCAs and Humane Societies all around Canada.

I hope today’s post and recipe will help me reach my fundraising goal for this important cause.  Since I’m not in a position to hold a bake sale today (Although I am sure my students would much rather host a bake sale than have French class!), I am hosting a  virtual/ in real life event. So, I’m posting the recipe for these cupcakes here and “in real life” I take them to work today to share with my colleagues.

To be honest, I had a bit of a tough time deciding what type of cupcakes to make this year. But then when I was planning my lamington re-invention with choux pastry, I suddenly thought that I might try to make a lamington cupcake. I’d also had the idea that I might want to make a Jaffa-inspired lamington (no, not a Jaffa cake, a Jaffa – according to Wikipedia “the registered trademark for a small round sweet consisting of a soft chocolate centre with a hard covering of orange flavoured, red coloured confectionery. The name derives from the Jaffa orange. The sweet is part of Australian and New Zealand cultural folklore“) – thus, combining two of my very favourite memories of my Australian childhood – Jaffas and lamingtons. But – in a cupcake…

So I present, the Jaffington Cupcake. A small, denser-than-your-average cupcake orange and almond flavoured cake topped with chocolate marmalade ganache and sprinkled with coconut. Jaffa flavours, inside out, with lamington features in a cupcake.

Yield: 12 cupcakes

Jaffington cupcakes

Print

A cupcake inspired by both lamingtons and Jaffas - two Australian childhood favourites - for National Cupcake Day 2014.

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Total Time 35 minutes

Ingredients

For the cupcakes:

• 90g unsalted butter, room temperature
• 60g sugar
• 2 eggs, separated
• zest of one large orange, divided
• 60g almond meal
• 70g all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon powdered food colouring (optional but makes for a better "Jaffa" effect!
• 1/4 cup orange juice

For the ganache:

• 75g marmalade
• 15g liquid honey
• 150g semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 25g unsalted butter

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350˚F.
2. Prepare 12 muffin tins by lining with paper cases.
3. Cream butter and sugar using an electric beater until light and fluffy.
4. Add the egg yolks, one at a time, mixing until just combined.
5. Add 1/2 of the orange zest, almond meal, flour, and baking powder and mix with a rubber spatula to combine all ingredients thoroughly.
6. Whip the egg whites to soft peaks and gently fold through the batter with the food colouring.
7. Fill each paper cupcake liner about 3/4 of the way full.
8. Bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of the cakes comes out clean.
9. Allow to cool thoroughly.

Make the ganache:

1. Heat the marmalade and honey in a small saucepan over medium-high heat.
2. Once the syrup is boiling, pour over the chocolate whisking constantly.
3. Once the mixture is smooth add the butter and whisk to incorporate.
4. Drizzle over the cupcakes with a small spoon.
5. Sprinkle the cupcakes with coconut.

Notes

There will be leftover ganache - you can keep it in the fridge and re-heat gently over a bain marie or in the microwave at low power and use to drizzle over ice-cream etc…

did you make this recipe?

please leave a comment or review on the blog or share a photo and tag me on Instagram @eatlivtravwrite !

Follow the reinvention of the lamington 2014 on Twitter – #lamingtons2014 and don’t forget to check out Peter Hallsworth’s lamington reinvention efforts so far this year (hint: they involve clotted cream, Wintergreen Tic Tacs, Pink Grapefruit and Seville oranges, just to name a few!)

Like the look of these? Want to support a great cause? Please head to my personal page on the National Cupcake Day website, where you will be able to donate a little something to support the SPCAs and Humane Societies. 

Donations towards my cupcakes will help shelters across Canada give a surrendered cat or dog a new forever home, rescue a neglected or abused animal and give them a second chance at a new life, and provide emergency surgery injured animals. Go on, the cats and dogs of Canada will thank you 🙂

Other cupcakes you might also enjoy:
National Cupcake Day 2013: Chocolate Coconut Cupcakes
National Cupcake Day 2014: Jaffington Cupcakes
National Cupcake Day 2015: Little Orange and Almond Cupcakes
National Cupcake Day 2016: Jam and Cream Butterfly Cupcakes
National Cupcake Day 2017: Strawberry Yoghurt Cupcakes
National Cupcake Day 2018: Double Chocolate Buckwheat Cupcakes
National Cupcake Day 2019: Fudge-y Chocolate Cupcakes
National Cupcake Day 2020: Lemon-Blueberry Financiers

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