homemade jaffa cupcakes

This classic starts out with a basic vanilla cupcake batter but is made special with the addition of the orange jelly and plain chocolate. I made this using smaller cake cases as I wanted a more even balance of cake, jelly and chocolate, this means you should get at least 12 from the basic mixture. Feel free however, to make the cakes in muffin cases, it will just change the balance of cake to jelly and chocolate.





Ingredients
1 quantity of vanilla cupcake batter
1 packet of orange jelly
2 tbsp marmalade
1 tsp lemon extract
squeeze lemon juice
250ml boiling water
100g good quality dark chocolate

1. Break up the packet of jelly into pieces and dissolve in the boiling water in a heat-proof jug. Once all the lumps have disappeared stir in the marmalade, lemon juice and extract. It's up to you whether you want the pieces of orange peel from the marmalade in your jelly, I chose to leave it out. Pour the jelly mixture into a shallow tray or plate so that it is around 0.5cm deep. Set to one side until set and you have completed the other stages.
2. Preheat the oven the 180C/160C Fan/350F/Gas 4 and place the paper cases in the tray. 
3. Make up the cupcake batter. Once cooked you want the cake to come just below the top of the case so that the jelly and chocolate will be contained within. When cooked set to one side until completely cool.
4. Next cut the jelly into discs just smaller than the top of the cupcakes. It's easiest to do this with a biscuit cutter or an upturned glass. 
5. Place each jelly disc on top of a cupcake.
6. In a heatproof bowl melt the chocolate over a pan of gently simmering water. Take care not to over heat otherwise the chocolate will go grainy.
7. Once the chocolate has melted remove from the heat and using a spoon carefully cover the top of each cupcake with a thin layer of chocolate. Take a piece of orange peel from the marmalade and place on top of the chocolate for decoration.
8. Chill the cakes until the chocolate is completely set and ready to eat.