I consider doughnuts a guilty pleasure, and for the most part I don't indulge except when I pass by the mini-doughnut stand at the annual Downtown Holiday Market in Penn Quarter, where the doughnuts are fried to order, served piping hot, and you get to sprinkle on your topping of choice (mine is always cinnamon sugar). But I could not resist a Sugared Jam Cake recipe from Bake from Scratch where the headnote promised, "If you love jelly donuts, this cake just might blow your mind."
The cake has a jam filling and I decided to make the Quick Blackberry-Blueberry Jam from scratch. I did this a day in advance, cooking blueberries, blackberries, sugar, and lemon juice until the mixture thickened, mashing the fruit along the way. I let the jam cool, put it in a plastic container, and stuck it in the fridge. The following day when I was ready to bake the cake, I took out the jam and it was a brick. I guess I over-reduced it; I'm definitely no expert on making jam but was not expecting such a colossal fail. I couldn't even pry it out of the container. Fortunately, I had recently received two gifts of blueberry jam (one was homemade by a friend and the other was purchased by a kind colleague during a trip to Maine), so I was able to use them instead.
The cake recipe is simple. You combine all of the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, kosher salt, and freshly-grated nutmeg) in one bowl; combine all of the liquid ingredients (milk, melted butter, vanilla bean paste, and eggs) in another; and stir the wet into the dry. You pour half of the batter into a buttered and parchment-lined 8-inch pan; spoon on a layer of jam; and cover the jam with the remaining cake batter.
While the cakes were still warm from the oven, I unmolded them, brushed on melted butter, and sprinkled them with a mixture of sugar, cinnamon, and kosher salt. I waited until the cake was completely cooled to slice it.
This cake was so dang good. It really did evoke a jelly doughnut, and the best kind of doughnut that has been freshly made -- not like the ones that you randomly find in your office break room that have been there for God only knows how long. The cake had a magnificent dense, soft texture that was perfect even on day two. That little touch of nutmeg is so lovely (and important to making the cake more doughnut-like!) and the addition of salt to the cinnamon-sugar coating to temper the sweetness and intensify the flavor is pretty genius. Of course, you could use any flavor of jam you like for this cake, but the slightly tart blueberry was a very nice complement.
I love, love, love this cake and would absolutely make it again and again.
Recipe: "Sugared Jam Cake" from Bake From Scratch.
The cake has a jam filling and I decided to make the Quick Blackberry-Blueberry Jam from scratch. I did this a day in advance, cooking blueberries, blackberries, sugar, and lemon juice until the mixture thickened, mashing the fruit along the way. I let the jam cool, put it in a plastic container, and stuck it in the fridge. The following day when I was ready to bake the cake, I took out the jam and it was a brick. I guess I over-reduced it; I'm definitely no expert on making jam but was not expecting such a colossal fail. I couldn't even pry it out of the container. Fortunately, I had recently received two gifts of blueberry jam (one was homemade by a friend and the other was purchased by a kind colleague during a trip to Maine), so I was able to use them instead.
The cake recipe is simple. You combine all of the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, kosher salt, and freshly-grated nutmeg) in one bowl; combine all of the liquid ingredients (milk, melted butter, vanilla bean paste, and eggs) in another; and stir the wet into the dry. You pour half of the batter into a buttered and parchment-lined 8-inch pan; spoon on a layer of jam; and cover the jam with the remaining cake batter.
This cake was so dang good. It really did evoke a jelly doughnut, and the best kind of doughnut that has been freshly made -- not like the ones that you randomly find in your office break room that have been there for God only knows how long. The cake had a magnificent dense, soft texture that was perfect even on day two. That little touch of nutmeg is so lovely (and important to making the cake more doughnut-like!) and the addition of salt to the cinnamon-sugar coating to temper the sweetness and intensify the flavor is pretty genius. Of course, you could use any flavor of jam you like for this cake, but the slightly tart blueberry was a very nice complement.
I love, love, love this cake and would absolutely make it again and again.
Recipe: "Sugared Jam Cake" from Bake From Scratch.
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