Blackberry Jam Cake

Sometimes I really hate it when I'm right. You know those times when there's something you're supposed to do, and the more you think about it and the closer it gets, you keep trying to talk yourself out of it? Look for excuses and loopholes? Plan your escape? While all the time, that annoying, uppity, sensible little voice in your head (or sometimes your husband) tells you over and over, "You'll be glad you did!!" So you do it. Grumbling, slouching, determined to hate every second... and then blast it all, by the end, you really ARE glad you did!! Am I the only who who can't help just a smidge of resentment at that? Sometimes I think it would be so nice to do that "thing", family gathering, work party, exercise, church meeting, etc., then come home and say, "HA!! I wish I hadn't done that! It was SOOO not worth it!!" Sigh. This is how I was today with "working out." Still sore from Tuesday, up late and more stiff from choir last night, I did NOT want to work out today! But I did!! I wimped out faster than usual, but I made it to the end, and darn that little voice, I was glad I did. Now I want to take a nap. :)

When I was planning my menu for the week, I thought of things I wanted to make, and things I wanted to eat. This beautiful little cake has been on my Pinterest board for months, but I never had a reason to try it. So it made it on the list!! And I'm so glad it did. To start with, it smelled fabulous while baking!

Blackberry Jam Cake (adapted from Salt and Chocolate)
Printable Recipe

1 cup of unsalted butter, room temperature
1 3/4 cup sugar

zest from 1 lemon
4 eggs, room temperature
2 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking soda
3 cups cake flour (you can use all-purpose flour too, it just won't be as light)
2 tsp of cinnamon

1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup of plain Greek yogurt
1 cup of seedless blackberry preserves (not jelly!)

1/2 cup of blackberry preserves

1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar.

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees and spray/grease a 12 cup bundt pan. 

In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, spices, salt and baking soda. Set this aside.

Beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well and scraping down the sides after each. Add the vanilla and beat until combined. Add a 1/3 of the flour,  followed by half of the yogurt, beating after each addition. Repeat: flour, yogurt, flour. Fold in the blackberry preserves (lumps are yummy). 

Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 15 minutes. Leaving the cake in and the door closed, increase the heat to 350 and bake for 40-50 minutes more, till nice and brown, and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn it out onto rack to cool completely before glazing.

For the glaze heat the 1/2 cup of blackberry preserves in a small sauce pan (or the microwave) until it thins a bit, then whisk in the powdered sugar and lemon juice till thick and smooth. Pour over cake. (Make sure you have something under it to catch all that drippy glaze!)

Can you believe that color?! Just blackberry jam and sugar!! And a bit of lemon, of course. This cake needed some tang! :)

A homey, old-fashioned, spiced jam cake. So yummy! It's moist and flavorful, and you could probably do this with any jam you wanted to! Mix it into the glaze so it matches, of course, and you may want to tweak the spices to match. I've got the remnants of marmalade, peach, and apricot jams in my fridge at the moment... I may have to try this with all three together!

I'm sorry I didn't get a picture of a slice for you, we served it to guests that night, and they weren't aware of my penchant for slicing things up for my blog... so I left it whole. :) But it was truly scrumptious! It isn't super-duper sweet, you could probably get away with it for breakfast! We had it topped with some homemade whipped cream, and everyone was a fan! You can't get a better review than that!

Shared at Foodie Friday