July 9, 2013 - Blackberry Jam Cake

I had taken some time off of baking (went to visit some friends, 4th of July, busy two weeks), so when I was looking at what I wanted to make after my break I settled for a cake.  Flipping through I was the recipe for Foolproof Sponge Cake.  This looked interesting and then I saw the Blackberry Jam Cake recipe.  I personally love anything with blackberry, so I settled on this, and I was not disappointed.

 

I had never made a sponge cake before, so this was going to be something new for me.  Being largely egg based, it consisted of a lot of beating of eggs and egg whites, mixing them together, and adding some sifted dry ingredients.  I tried my best to use a light hand at all times, because I had a feeling this could definitely be one of those cakes that if you beat or mix too much you could end up with a very thin, dense cake.  Once the batter was done it went into the pans and into the oven.

 

 

 

 

The cakes came out looking great.  They were very light and airy to the touch, and perfectly golden brown.  Once they cooled, the assembly for this cake was insanely easy:  Scoop out some blackberry jam, smooth it out on the bottom layer, slap the top layer on, and dust with confectioners sugar.  It doesn't get much easier than that!

I really enjoyed this cake.  It was lighter than a typical buttery cake, and I loved that strong flavor of the jam against the cake.  The only mistake (which you can see in the pic below) was that there were still some pockets of dry ingredients in the finished cake.  Obviously something I need to take better care of avoiding the next time I make a cake like this.  Overall though, another success!