Old-Fashioned Jam Cake

Sorry for not having Dorie's Toasted Coconut Tart, which was chosen by Cinemon Girl. I had too many birthdays this week. Chet and my brother-in-law Larry have back to back birthdays on February 24th adn 25th. It's become a part of my gift to a loved one to let them choose a "birthday treat" from my favorite baking bible, Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. So far, almost everyone has chosen a cake. My mom chose Devil's Food White-Out Cake, Earl (my father-in-law) chose Banana Cream Pie, Allison (my sister) chose a Double-Apple Bundt Cake, and my wonderful husband chose the Perfect Party Cake. (And now I realize that maybe Shirley didn't get a birthday treat. Oops! Shirley, you can pick a treat anytime, just because!) Since Chet's birthday came first, he got first choice. But he didn't want to look at my book. He said, "Jam Cake. I have the recipe." I didn't say it at the time, but I'll admit it now. I was disappointed. "Jam cake? Really? Only old ladies like jam cake." But I promised the birthday boy any treat he wanted, so I planned to deliver.

I'm glad that I obliged. It was ugly, but it was good. It had been a rough day, so I ran into some problems with the icing (I'd never made a cooked icing, so I kept whipping it, waiting for it to get fluffy. Before I figured out that it wasn't going to get fluffy, it almost got too cool to frost with, but it tasted like caramel fudge. Yum.) The flavor of the cake was wonderful. The flavor of the spices reminded me of fall, and the blackberry jam made the cake so moist. I think it had been a logn time since Chet had eaten a jam cake, because he said, "This is just the way I remember it!" I was so glad that I was able to give him a practically perfect (tasting) cake for his birthday.

As you can see, I didn't do a fantastic job on the icing, and the layers aren't exactly the same size, but it was delicious! It's rich though...the icing is like fudge, so you can't eat a lot of it...although we tried!

Want to see the recipe Chet gave me? This is exactly what he gave me:

Jam Cake

Charlene McPherson

1 cup butter

5 eggs

2 cups sugar

3 cups flour

1 cup buttermilk

1 tsp. soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp. cloves

1/2 tsp. allspice

1 cup raisins

1 cup pecans

1 cup jam

Mix Flour Grease and Wax paper Line Cake Pans

And for the icing:

1 box brown sugar

1 cup cream

Cook to soft ball stage add 1/2 stick butter and 1 tsp. vanilla. Beat until creamy and spread.