Blackberry Jam Cake with Penuche Frosting

This cake is my mother-in-law's favorite, so I make it every year for her birthday. I don't know if it measures up to her childhood memories of "cake and dip" down at her Aunt Lucy's farm in Kentucky, but we all enjoy it.

This year, with everyone making and selling cupcakes, I thought that the little mini-Bundt pans would be pretty for the birthday. Bad idea, because with all the blackberry jam and low percentage of butter in this recipe, these lil' boogers just didn't want to let go of the pan.  Sigh.

But frosting covers a multitude of sins. And no one's going to complain about too much penuche.

Recipe: Blackberry Jam Cake with Penuche Frosting

       From The Fanny Farmer Cookbook, 11th edition

Butter and flour (or spray) two 9" layer tins.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees (F.)

Sift or whisk together:
  2 c. unbleached white flour
  1 teas. each allspice, cinnamon,
         nutmeg
  1 teas. baking soda
  1/2 teas. salt

Cream until light and fluffy
   1/4 c. butter, shortening or lard
   1 c. sugar
Add one at a time
   3 eggs. Beat until light.
In large measuring cup, mix
   1 c. blackberry jam (seedless)
   1/4 c. sour milk (or soy milk with 1 tsp lemon juice)
Stir the dry ingredients into the egg mixture, alternating with the jam mixture.
Do not overbeat. 
Turn into prepared pans.
Bake about 25 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes then turn out onto racks.
When completely cool, frost with Penuche Frosting.

Penuche Frosting

Mix in a saucepan:
   1 c. brown sugar
   1/2 c. white sugar (fine raw sugar is okay)
   a few grains of salt
   1/3 c. milk (I use soy milk)
   2 Tbs. butter
   1 Tbs. corn syrup  (honey works, adds deeper flavor)

Bring slowly to a boil, stirring constantly.
Boil 1 minute.
Remove from heat. If you do not have a hand mixer, transfer into your mixer's bowl.
Cool to lukewarm then add:
   1/2 tsp. vanilla
Beat until thick enough to spread.
Tip: dip spreader in warm water to help frosting spread smoothly.

Chocolate-Covered Cherry Brownies

Here is yet another treat that's so simple it's almost cheating to call it a recipe. Drop brownie batter into mini-cupcake pans, add half a cherry and bake. When they're cool, top with melted chocolate. That's about it.  But here are the details:

Recipe: Chocolate-Covered Cherry Brownies

 One batch brownie batter,  link here:"simple recipe" or your favorite mix.
       (I like Ghirardelli's Chocolate Supreme because it's dairy-free.)

Marachino Cherries, halved or whole as preferred

3/4 c. Chocolate Chips
         (Ghirardelli 60% Bittersweet, also dairy-free)
2 Tbs. Canola Oil

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray or oil mini-cupcake tins.
Mix up the brownie batter, dropping about 2 Tbs into each mini-tin.
Top each with a whole or halved cherry. Bake about 15 minutes, or till just set.
Cool at least 10 minutes before lifting from tins to cooling rack. Cool completely.


Melt chocolate chips with oil, stir smooth. 
Top each brownie with about a Tbs of chocolate.
Place rack of frosted brownies into refrigerator to set the chocolate;
When the chocolate loses its shine and looks dull, like the brownie on the left in the photo, the frosting is set and may be removed from refrigerator.  Keep at room temperature until devoured.

Lemon Blueberry Cake

4 lemons, zested and juiced
1 c. extra-virgin olive oil
2 c. unbleached all-purpose flour
1 Tbs. baking powder
6 eggs
1 tsp. salt
2 c. sugar (raw preferred)
1/2 c. ground almonds
1 c. fresh blueberries

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spray (or grease) a 10 or 12 cup Bundt pan.
Combine zest, juice and olive oil in a small bowl.
Whisk together flour and baking powder in a separate bowl.
In small bowl or cup, dust blueberries with 1 Tbs. of the flour. 

In large mixing bowl, combine eggs and salt.

Slowly add the sugar, increase speed and beat until light and fluffy.
Reduce mixer to low speed and add almonds a heaping tablespoon at a time.
Then slowly add the flour mixture, followed by the combined oil and lemon.
Mix only enough to combine the ingredients.

Pour about an inch of batter into the prepared pan. Dot with blueberries, without allowing berries to touch the edges of the pan. Add another inch or two of batter, more blueberries, and repeat until batter is about 2 inches from the top of the pan.

If using 10 cup pan, bake left-over batter in cupcake tins or in a 6" iron skillet. This small cake will be done in 25-30 minutes.

Bake at 325 degrees about 50 - 60 minutes, testing for doneness at 45 minutes.

Cool in pan 3 - 5 minutes, then turn out onto cooling rack. When completely cool, dust with powdered sugar or glaze with thin powdered sugar/lemon juice icing.  The rose pan is particularly nice for this, since the glaze collects between the petals then soaks into the cake.