Monday Bake - Bramble Sponge, Cheesecake and Jam!

On Friday Minibakebakegirl and I went paddling in the river beside the allotment to collect brambles.  Unfortunately, I was in bare feet and there was too many stones for me to stand for too long - we got quite a small haul. So yesterday morning I went back in my wellies and quickly filled a large tub;  enough to make 3 jars of jam, a sponge cake and a topping for cheesecake.   So this week's blog post brings you three recipes - get picking those brambles!

The recipe for the sponge was in this Saturdays Daily Mail magazine and is by Jamie Oliver.

Ingredients:
125g unsalted butter, cubed and softened
125g caster sugar
3 large eggs
A splash of milk
125g self raising flour, plus 1tsp extra
350g brambles
Clotted cream to serve

Method:
Preheat the oven to 190c/GM5.
Grease a 20cm springform tin with butter, line the base with grease-proof paper.  Beat the butter and sugar in a large bowl until creamy.  Add the eggs one at a time.  Sift in the flour and fold in.  Add a splash of milk to loosen the mix (if needed).  Spoon the batter into the tin and smooth out.  Toss the brambles in a teaspoon of flour and scatter over the batter.  Bake for 35 to 40 minutes until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Cool in tin tin for 5 minutes, careful remove from the tin and cool completely on a wire rack.  Serve with the clotted cream.

The recipe for the cheesecake is from the Philadelphia website - you can find it here.
To make the topping, place about 200g of brambles in a saucepan with 3 tbsps of icing sugar.   Heat until the fruit has broken down, then leave to cool.  Layer on top of the chilled cheesecake.

For the jam - I used the recipe on the back of the Silver Spoon Jam Sugar packet:

Ingredients:
800g fresh strawberries (I replaced this with brambles)
1kg jam sugar
knob of butter

Method:
Crush the fruit with a masher and place them in a saucepan.
Add the jam sugar and heat gently whilst stirring continuously until the sugar dissolves.  DO NOT BOIL at this stage.
Add the knob of butter
Keep stirring, increasing the heat and bringing it to a full rolling boil.
Boil for 4 minutes.
Remove from the heat and pour into warm sterile jars and cover.

See you next week,
Bakebakegirl

Todays top three Spotify songs:

1. Flawless - The Ones
2. You Got The Love - The Source Feat Candi Staton  
3. Lola's Theme - The Shapeshifters