Baking for Nightshift- White and Dark Chocolate Jaffa Swirl Cake

First of all I know the photos are a bit poxy BUT at least you can still see how the cake looks inside. This is what happens when you have two boys wanting to have a piece of cake after coming home from school starving...no time to make it look too pretty. This recipe was from one of my many new cookbooks called 'Mix and Bake' by Belinda Jeffery. I know I have said it before..."My name is Megan and I'm a cookbook addict"...I can hear some of you saying "Hi Megan" now, well those of you who have joined me in the Obsessed-With-Cookbooks Anonymous support group anyway. I have a few more books coming from Amazon.co.uk (is it MY fault that the postage is free and all you have to spend is 25 pound to be eligible for free postage...and the exchange rate is SO good at the moment....) and after that I WILL NOT buy anymore. I promise! Really!


Anyway this book is really fantastic. It is easy to follow and the recipes look really good. The only thing you need to remember is that is is Australian and therefore you have to make sure a tablespoon measure is actually 20ml instead of 15ml we use here. I love any excuse to use my bundt tin and this meant I could break it out of captivity again. This was a very easy recipe to make and tasted fantastic. When marbling it's amazing how little you have to swirl it to get the right effect. As you can see if I had swirled it a bit more it would have all blended together and while still tasting good, it wouldn't have looked all that great. I drizzled over a bit of ganache...not too much so you hide the curves and angles of the bundt tin, but enough to lift the flavour of the cake. This cake is largely made in the food processor but I prefer to do it the old-fashioned way and used my mixer so the method will be this way rather than the recipe way.


White and Dark Chocolate Jaffa Swirl Cake


55g white chocolate, finely chopped
55g dark chocolate, finely chopped
290g butter, at room temperature
2 1/2c flour
1 tsp baking powder
3/4tsp baking soda
4 eggs
2c caster sugar
1c buttermilk
1 1/2tsp vanilla
1Tbsp finely grated orange zest (I used 1 1/2 oranges to get mine)


Melt the chocolates in separate bowls (in the microwave) with 20gm of the butter in each bowl. Cool to room temperature.


Cream the remaining butter (250g) until light and creamy. Add the caster sugar and beat until creamy.. Add the eggs one at a time beating well after each addition then beat in the vanilla. Sift together the dry ingredients. Add in 3 parts alternately with the buttermilk beginning and ending with the flour. Don't overbeat. Separate the mixture equally into 2 bowls then add the white chocolate mixture into one and the dark into another. Mix until just combined.


Grease a bundt tin (or else a 25cm tin would be ok too). Spread half of the orange mix in the bottom followed by the dark mix and repeat. Try to not mix them together. Then get a thin knife and swirl gently...try zigzagging it. Don't be tempted to overdo the swirling or it will all blend together.


Bake about 55 mins or until cooked. Drizzle with a bit of ganache when cool.