{recipe} Kentucky Jam Cake with Brown Sugar Icing

I recently finished watching all three seasons of Justified–a somewhat silly TV show on the FX network set in Kentucky that’s about a US marshal and a whole bunch of lowlife hillbilly types who sell Oxycontin and shoot each other with sawed off shotguns. It’s not terribly flattering to Kentuckians in general, but it’s an entertaining show, and besides Timothy Olyphant is so darn good-looking that I’d probably watch a show about him watching paint dry. In the course of the show, the characters mention jam cake a few times. After the first mention I was curious, the second mention intrigued, and by the third mention, I knew I had to look into this jam cake thing once and for all. Because JAM. And CAKE. Yes please.

This is where the internet shines – in pursuit of information of just this type. (I mean, that, and cats. The internet is really good at cats.) After confirming that it is indeed a Kentucky thing for real, and perusing several different versions of jam cake recipes, I made up my own and while I have no idea if it’s authentically a Kentucky jam cake, I am quite certain it is a fricking delicious cake. A whole cup of jam is mixed into the batter, along with a bunch of melty sweet dates. Buttermilk adds tang, and allspice, cloves, and cinnamon spice it up. The whole thing is covered with a brown sugar and evaporated milk concoction that’s straight out of the South.

To be honest, the icing for this cake is a little fiddly and requires a candy thermometer and some fast frosting skills because it hardens immediately after making it. While it’s traditional for this cake, it’s certainly not necessary. I think this would be great baked in a bundt pan and drizzled with a simple lemon glaze or just baked in loaf pans and eaten like a coffee cake with no frosting at all.

Kudos to the Justified writing staff for including reference to this regionally accurate culinary delight, and thanks for dropping the hints to make me pursue it. Now that I’m done with Justified I’ve moved on to watching The Wire, but I don’t foresee any recipes inspired by that show, unless cooking heroin in a spoon or drinking Jameson whisky straight from the bottle counts as a “recipe.”

Recipe: Kentucky Jam Cake with Brown Sugar Icing

makes one tall 2-layer cake

INGREDIENTS:

for the cake:

• 1 cup butter
• 2 cups sugar
• 5 eggs
• 1 1/2 tsp ground allspice
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• large pinch salt
• 3 cups + 1 Tblsp flour, divided
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 cup dates, chopped
• 1 cup blackberry or raspberry jam

for the icing:

• 3 cups brown sugar
• 1 cup evaporated milk
• 1/2 cup butter

METHOD:

make the cake:

• Preheat oven to 325 F. Prepare 2 8-inch or 9-inch round cake pans by spraying with nonstick spray. Place a circle of parchment paper in the bottom of each pan and spray the paper.
• Using a mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
• Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each egg.
• Add spices, salt, 3 cups of flour, and baking soda. Mix on low speed for a few rotations. With the mixer going, drizzle buttermilk in. Mix everything until just combined.
• Use your fingers to toss the dates with the remaining 1 Tblsp of flour so they separate. Add dates and jam to mixer and stir until just combined.
• Pour batter into prepared pans and bake 30-45 minutes, until a knife comes out clean.
• Let cool for 10 minutes then invert on a rack to finish cooling.