Kentucky Jam Cake – Adventures in Sourdough

Since the early 1980’s,  I’ve carried around this recipe for Kentucky Jam Cake. For 35 years, it never made it out of the darkness of my recipe box — until yesterday.

Below is a photo of the original inspiration…




I added Basic Batter for sourdough jam cake and the rest is history.
Don’t follow these scratchy notes, though. The Food for the Ages™ recipe farther below will lead you to a delicious modern version using an ancient set of ingredients that results in a delightful, carb-loaded dessert, but belly-friendly — the wonder of sourdough baking.

Picture the caramel icing pouring onto the cake while it’s hot. The walnuts, raisins, spices and buttermilk that give it its memorable textures and flavors and the seedless blackberry jam that gives it its name. What a cake! 

Einkhorn flour is made from ancient wheat that is now being produced again and is non-GMO and very low in gluten and high in vitamins and minerals.  I am committed to using my 25-lb. bag of spring red wheat berries and grinding my own flour in my Vita Mix, as you can see in my sourdough bread post.

This Kentucky Sourdough Jam Cake was made at 9,150 feet. If you’re at another altitude, you should make adjustments to the amounts of baking powder, sugar and liquid.

 

Kentucky Sourdough Jam Cake with Caramel Icing

1 stick butter, half-melted

1/4 cup white sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 large eggs

1/2 cup seedless blackberry jam

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 1/2 cups Basic Batter (see sourdough bread recipe for Basic Batter recipe)

In a large bowl, beat the half-melted butter and sugar on top speed until it is fluffy and glossy, usually about 10 minutes. This is a very important part of the mixing process, so don’t rush this.

Add one egg at a time, beating thoroughly after each. Add jam, buttermilk and Basic Batter and beat well.

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (Or use a flour of your choice, I used Einkhorn.)

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon allspice

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1 cup raisins, plumped in water (discard water)

In a medium-sized bowl, mix together with a whisk: flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, cloves then mix in walnuts and raisins. (This will keep the raisins and walnuts from sinking to the bottom of the pan, like mine did!) Mix dry ingredients with batter thoroughly then pour into a buttered and floured tube pan, bundt pan, two round cake pans or one 9 x 13 inch cake pan.

Bake for 30-35 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean.

Caramel Icing

1 stick butter

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

1/2 cup milk or cream (I used non-fat milk.)

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a saucepan on the stove melt butter, brown sugar and cream/milk. Bring to a boil and let boil for two minutes. Take saucepan off heat and pour into powdered sugar and beat for several minutes. Pour over cake while the cake and icing are still hot.