I have lots of home made jam in the larder, but we don’t use much any more as we’ve stopped having jammy toast. This jam cake is a fabulous way to use it up, especially those half used jars that have gone a bit winey.

Damson and walnut jam cake

I tried something new today. Miss Thrifty made a lovely chocolate orange cake recently, using marmalade. I was intrigued by the use of marmalade and wondered if I might be able to use jam instead. I used to make a lot of jam and I have loads of jars of it still.

I used Miss Thrifty’s recipe, but omitted the chocolate, used some home madedamson jam and added about 80g of chopped walnuts. I also used some of the massive stash I am still working my way through of granary flour, and a bit of baking powder as it wasn’t self raising. Mike couldn’t wait for it to cool and tried it straight out of the oven. He declared it pretty alright really, which translates as delicious.

I tried a tiny sliver and it had a wonderful deep flavour from the damsons, delicious crunch from the walnuts and a bouncy robust texture from the granary flour, although next time, I think I might sieve out the lumps from the flour and put them back in the bag, they were a bit hard

It was really easy to make and I am looking forward to using up some more jam in due course. I also have some extremely strong marmalade made using Mamade, think that would be good.

What do I need to make jam cake

• Butter. The cheapest kind is just fine.
• Any jam, I used home made damson
• Sugar
• Pinch of salt
• Eggs
• Flour, self raising or plain with baking powder
• Chopped walnuts
• 20cm cake tin, buttered or lined and buttered. I used a non stick tin, clip sided tin and bottom lined it with a reusable silicone.

 

How do I make jam cake

• Butter or line and buttered a cake tin.
• Melt the butter.
• Now add the jam, sugar and salt.
• Mix well and beat in the eggs.
• Finally, add the flour and combine everything together.
• Tip the mix into the tin. Bake at 180C, fan 160C, 350F, gas mark 4 for 40 to 50 minutes. A skewer will come out clean once baked.
• Leave to cool in the tin.
• If the flour used is not self raising, add a good tsp of baking powder. Judging by the results using the granary flour, this would work well with wholemeal flour too.

What changes can I make

• Butter – any fat can be used, coconut, margarine, spread or vegetable oil
• Jam – I used home made, and this is a fabulous way to use home made jam that has gone a bit winey
• Sugar – ordinary granulated, Muscovado, light or dark brown or jaggery. Agave, honey, golden syrup or whatever you have
• Eggs – large by preference. Or swap for flax seed eggs
  • If you’re making one flax egg, combine one tablespoon of flaxseed meal and three tablespoons of water and allow to sit for about 5 minutes. Add to your recipe just as you would an egg
• Flour, self raising or plain with baking powder. Or use wholemeal, also with baking powder
• 20cm cake tin, buttered or lined and buttered, or a lined 2lb loaf tin
• Nuts – any can be used to replace the walnuts, or a mixture of course, or just leave them out. I used them because I fancied doing so.
• Any jam too. Some matches of jam type and nut would work particularly well.
  • I would try raspberry and hazelnut
  • plum and almond
  • strawberry and cashew or peanut
  • apricot and almond
  • rhubarb and ginger.
  • I wonder if the saltiness of salted peanuts would survive the mixing and baking process?

when I peered at the faded label on the jam jar, guess what it was dated? 1999!!!! It kept well then!

Other experiments

Well I tried the golden milk overnight oats and I can’t say that I’m a fan. I didn’t use any sweetening as I am weaning myself off sweet things, and I didn’t use some of the more unusual ingredients, but I don’t think it would have made any difference. This one just isn’t for me.

Plummy oats

One I tried this morning however very much was. I still have many boxes of plums from the trees in the garden last year. We barely have a plum this year. What a contrast! Once defrosted, I mixed them with value oats. I overdid the oats for the amount of plums, so I mixed in some milk as well. This morning I had some for breakfast, they were a bit too sharp, so I poured over a splash of double cream and a teaspoon of rich, dark Muscovado sugar. Yes, I know I’ve just said I’m weaning myself off sweet things! It was deeply delicious, luscious and rather wonderful. So that’s definitely a keeper, and is a great way to use up those plums. The freezers are gradually getting emptier as I make determined efforts to use things up.

I didn’t freeze any rhubarb this year. It takes up a lot of room, so I just made loads of crumbles for Mike, he loves them, and I suggested that we just ate seasonally, enjoying it whilst it was here and waiting until next year for more. The rhubarb is looking distinctly autumnal today, I don’t know if that’s it now for this year. It’s getting plenty of water, that’s for sure, and it had loads of compost on it last winter.

Other cakes you might like

Wondering what to do with orange peel? How about this easy orange cake

An Easy Fruit Loaf

 

An outstanding chocolate roulade