Jelly Cakes

This is probably the biggest winner for the school class, cupcake birthday baking so far.  I made this for a large year 4 class, on the birthday year where my daughter was not hosting a huge party. So I made up for it in this bake off. The teacher even had seconds.

The inspiration originally came from watching a cooking show together where she was in awe of these being made by Kylie Kwong and her mother. All admitting they were an Australian classic apparently – I had never seen them before!

I have doubled this recipe, and even added only extra half of the ingredients by using 2 small eggs when I wanted to reach the number in my daughter’s class. 

They are a little fiddly but fun to make, plus all the steps are easy. Worth it for the big batch you get and I still have kids thanking me for them and telling me how their teacher snuck an extra one!

Recipe based on “Tasmania’s doyenne of baking”, Sally Wise. From an article in the April 2016 Gourmet Traveller magazine.

Pictured: Jelly Cakes

1 batch of jelly made from 85 g jelly crystal packet – I prefer raspberry and like to make my own from fresh raspberries in season, original recipe uses port wine flavour with some extra 2 tbsp blackcurrant cordial added – choose your favourite flavour that goes nicely with coconut.

80g/ 1 ½ cups desiccated coconut

300ml single cream

2 tsp icing sugar

Cakes –

1 egg

165g/ ¾ cup caster sugar

125ml / ½ cup milk

225g/ 1 ½ cups self-raising flour

60g butter, melted

1 tbps lemon juice

Prepare the jelly as per instructions – adding 250ml boiling water to the crystals stirring til it dissolves – add any cordial flavour at this time if using. Cool, but do not allow to set. Place in the fridge to speed it up a little if a warm day and to help thicken the texture a little from watery.

Preheat oven to 160°C.

Butter a 24 scoop-shaped patty pan, or two 12 scoop ones – these have a shape like a half a moon. They are also used to make Portuguese Custard Tarts and Mini Quiche etc - worth the purchase!

Whisk the egg and sugar until well combined, then at once add the milk, flour, butter and lemon juice – whisk until it is smooth then stop – do not overwork the batter and bring out the gluten of the flour.

Fill the pans 2/3 full.

Bake 15 minutes or until golden and they spring back when pressed in the centre lightly.

Leave to stand in the tin a few minutes to cool a little, then turn onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Once cooled remove the cakes from the rack so you can place them back on top once they are dipped and rolled to have the final set.

Check the jelly is at the right consistency, have the coconut in a bowl ready.

Dip each cake quickly in the jelly then roll in the coconut and place on the wire racks to set for a two hours or so.

Whip the cream with the icing sugar to firm peaks. Spoon into a piping bag. Cut each jelly cake in half almost all the way through and pipe cream into the centre. Serve immediately.

I do find they refrigerate fairly well once made too. Try to bring back to room temperature for a few minutes before serving. Unfilled cakes can keep in the fridge in an airtight container for 3 days too.

Makes 24