After collecting a lot of blackberries out and about, I decided to make some jam. Then as we don’t eat jam much in this house, I made a cake to use the jam! This cake has three layers of vanilla sponge, vanilla buttercream and a blackberry jam filling.
Blackberry Jam
- About 500g blackberries
- 500g Jam Sugar
- Juice of half a small lemon
- A sugar thermometer
If you are using jam jars, wash and sterilise them ready for the jam (500g of fruit filled 2 jam jars with plenty left over for the cake).
Put all the blackberries in a saucepan (preferably a deep one) and squeeze in the lemon juice. Heat the blackberries over a medium heat. They will start to break down a bit. Take off the heat once the fruit is mostly juice (I left some chunkier blackberry bits in for texture in the jam).
Add the sugar and pop back on the heat. Bring to a boil and pop the sugar thermometer in. Heat the mixture until it reaches 105 degrees. Take off the heat and fill the jam jars. Leave to cool.
Vanilla Sponge Cake
I wanted a couple of jam layers in this cake so I used 3 x 8 inch sandwich tins.
- 300g self raising flour
- 265g margarine
- 265g caster sugar
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 4 eggs
Grease the cake tins with margarine then dust with flour. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees.
Put all the ingredients in a bowl and mix together until smooth.
Split evenly between the 3 cake tins. Bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes until risen and golden. Once done, remove the cakes from the tins and leave to cool on a wire rack.
Vanilla Buttercream
- 300g softened butter
- 400-500g icing sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp milk.
Beat the softened butter until smooth. Add the milk and the vanilla extract.
Gradually add the icing sugar and beat until really smooth and creamy. I used a lilac food colouring to give mine a purple tinge.
To assemble the cake, spread a thin layer of buttercream on the first layer, then dollop a large amount of jam on top. Do the same with the second layer and place on the first. Add the third layer and cover the whole cake with buttercream.
I decorated the cake with a few blackberries and some mint leaves.
