Jaffa Icebox Cake
YumJaffa Icebox Cake: Perfect fusion of orange, chocolate and butter cookies !
Alongside crunchy chocolate, Jaffa cookies were my favourite while I was growing up: a perfect balance of orange, biscuits and chocolate. My sister and I would always argue about whose turn it was to go to the shop across the street to buy some more. And when we had purchased the quantity desired, the next step was to smuggle the bag to our room so the parents would not know why we were skipping our dinners. We never mentioned it and it has remained that way, as this is one of those stories you can share only with your co-conspirator. Just like mischief-making at school: no-one understands the point except the group involved.
We were inspired by Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer’s adventures, they suited our time and place perfectly, fitted our sense of adventure.
To finish the Jaffa cookies’ story let me tell you how we smuggled them onto the first floor: one of us would wait upstairs at the window, and would drop a rope down. So the one who did the buying would tie the rope’s end to the basket or bag’s handle for the one upstairs to pull up. Then the party would start!
Until now, it never occurred to me that perhaps the neighbours saw our little ploy and told our parents, who can tell …?
I made this icebox cake from scratch but you can use ready-made orange jam (melt and spread it on the cookies while still warm to get an even surface) and ready-made chocolate pudding as well, to speed the process up. Here I give my detailed recipe from scratch. Please note, it is for a small batch (dish dimensions: 8 x 5.5 x 2 inches approx.)
These are two steps, followed by chocolate pudding layer and are repeated three times so you get three layers of everything, as you can see on the close-up photo:
Here is a close one so you can see the layers:
Jaffa Icebox Cake
Ingredients
- Ingredients for the chocolate pudding:
- ¾ cup sugar
- 1/3 cup flour
- 2 ½ Tbsp bitter cocoa
- 2 cups milk, dairy or non-dairy
- Ingredients for the orange jelly:
- 2 cups orange juice
- 2 ½ Tbsp pectin + 4 Tbsp sugar
- 18 butter cookies, 2.5 x 2 inches each
- Roasted almonds to garnish, if desired
Instructions
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In a medium-sized pot, mix the chocolate pudding ingredients and boil for 3 minutes, stirring constantly.
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Leave aside to cool completely.
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In another pot, boil the orange jelly ingredients for 3 minutes.
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Lay the first layer of cookies on the bottom of the dish. Cut the cookies if necessary (as seen on the photo).
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While the jelly is still warm, spread 7 Tbsp of it over the cookies.
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Carefully spread 4 Tbsp of chocolate pudding over the jelly.
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Repeat steps 4 – 6 two more times.
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Chill for at least four hours.
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