Blackberry Jam Cake

the great celebration cake of the Appalachian hills: a dark, spiced layer cake bound with home-made blackberry jam and studded with walnuts and raisins, cloaked in caramel icing

Origin: United States

From the journey of Blackberry.

The blackberry jam cake is the great celebration cake of Kentucky, Tennessee, and the wider Appalachian South, baked for Christmas, for homecomings, and for family reunions, and carried down through generations in handwritten recipe cards. It belongs to the old rural economy of the hills, in which the summer's glut of wild blackberries was cooked down into jam and kept through the year, and in which that jam was then folded into a cake to make a rich, dark, moist crumb spiced with cinnamon, clove, allspice, and nutmeg and studded, in the old style, with walnuts and raisins. The blackberry jam is the heart of the cake, lending it colour, moisture, and a deep, brambly fruit note beneath the warm spices; a jam cake made without it is simply a spice cake, and not the thing at all. The whole is traditionally baked in layers and cloaked in a caramel icing, the burnt-sugar sweetness of the icing set against the dark, spiced, fruited crumb, though a plain buttermilk glaze or a dusting of sugar is common in more everyday versions. It is a cake that keeps and improves for days, and that tastes unmistakably of an Appalachian autumn.

Ingredients

Cake

  • 225 g unsalted butter, softened
  • 300 g caster sugar
  • 4 whole eggs
  • 300 g seedless blackberry jam
  • 350 g plain flour
  • 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 tsp ground allspice
  • 1 tsp ground cloves
  • 0.5 tsp ground nutmeg
  • 0.5 tsp salt
  • 240 ml buttermilk
  • 100 g walnuts, chopped
  • 100 g raisins

Caramel Icing

  • 225 g unsalted butter
  • 200 g dark brown sugar
  • 120 ml double cream or evaporated milk
  • 300 g icing sugar, sifted

Method

  1. Heat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan) and grease and line three 20 cm round cake tins. Cream the softened butter and caster sugar together until pale and fluffy, then beat in the eggs one at a time. Beat in the blackberry jam until fully combined; the batter will take on a marbled purple colour.
  2. Whisk together the flour, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, nutmeg, and salt. Add to the batter in three parts, alternating with the buttermilk and beginning and ending with the flour, mixing just until combined. Fold in the walnuts and raisins.
  3. Divide the batter between the three tins and bake for 28 to 35 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean and the cakes spring back to a light touch. Cool in the tins for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to cool completely.
  4. Make the caramel icing: melt the butter with the brown sugar in a heavy pan over a medium heat and boil, stirring, for 2 minutes. Add the cream, return to the boil, then take off the heat and cool for a few minutes. Beat in the sifted icing sugar until smooth and spreadable.
  5. Sandwich the cooled layers with caramel icing, then spread the rest over the top and sides. Leave to set before slicing. The cake keeps, well wrapped, for up to a week and is best a day or two after baking.

Notes

This is the celebration version with its full complement of caramel icing; for an everyday cake, bake it in a single Bundt or loaf tin and finish with a simple buttermilk glaze or a dusting of icing sugar. The walnuts and raisins are traditional but optional, and black walnuts, the intense native American nut, are the truly authentic Appalachian choice where they can be had. The quality of the cake rests above all on the jam, so use the best dark blackberry jam you can, or make your own from the summer's brambles.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

Mapping Culinary History

To explore — select an ingredient below.

Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route
Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control
© 2026 The Gastrographer. All original research, narratives, and illustrations. All rights reserved.