Jammy cheesecake cake

I made this cake a number of times in the summer, when I was working my way thru an obsession lately with layered cakes – not the two sponges sandwiched together variety, with whipped cream and jam (though they are good) – but the kind that have two or three layers of different tastes and textures baked into them.

This is a moist layer of butter cake, topped with cheesecake, swirled with jam, and sprinkled with a fine crumb topping.

Cakes like this are fun to make – this recipe used my food processor and my mixer (therefore different techniques). There was also a wonderful diary triumvirate; sour cream, butter and cream cheese. Cholesterol heaven!

And they are, of course, amazing to eat. I’ll confess this is nicer cold, when the thin cream cheese sets; being a thin layer, it is creamy and eye-rollingly wonderful, not sickly as it could so easily be if the proportions were different.

In the summertime I made this with tart raspberry jam, and also with thin slices of fresh apple (from my own tree - not dad's!). It is one of those accommodating recipes that you could use with any jar of jam with only a sppon or two left in, that needed using up; or, in the summer time, whatever stone fruit or berries you had piling up on the kitchen bench. I can imagine poached rhubarb would be delicious, too – a good, tart contrast to the creaminess of the cream cheese layer. This time I made it with quince jam of mum’s, so rich and sweet it was like liquid toffee (and the bits around the edges were like real, chewy toffee once baked).

Making it again today I realise I like a recipe to give you an indication of what you should be experiencing. I don’t need complete handholding, but it would have been reassuring to know that the cake batter is stiffer and dryer than concrete (but that the final cake is unbelievably soft and moist. Ah, the magical, mysterious science of baking!).

Jammy cheesecake cake
Adapted from another blog; I'm afraid I didn't write the name on my original printout. If this is yours, let me know.

• Preheat your oven to 180 and line an 8 inch square brownie tin with baking paper.
• Put 2 and 1/4 cups plain flour, 3/4 cups white sugar and 180 grams butter in a food processer and whizz up. Remove 1 cup of this and set aside.
• Add 1/2 teaspn baking powder, 1/2 teaspn baking soda (bicarb of soda) and a scant 1/4 teaspn salt and whizz up, then add a good 3/4 cups sour cream, 1 large egg, and a generous 1/2 teasp vanilla (let it slop a bit). It will look stiff and unpromising (see above). Push this into your brownie tin. Use force.
• Next cream a 250 gram block of cream cheese, 1/4 cup sugar and 1 egg til smooth. Pour over the cake base and lick fingers often.
• Drizzle over some jam (warm in microwave first to make it runny, if necessary), or use fresh or stewed fruit (as discussed above). I used a couple of generous spoonfuls - I could still see the cream cheese layer.
• Finally sprinkle over a couple of spoonfuls of the crumbs set aside earlier. The original recipe specified using the full cup of crumbs, but I think this would be too much (it also recommended eating this cake for breakfast). I freeze the leftovers for mum's chickens; if you don't have chickens maybe you could feed the pigeons in your local park? Waste not want not.
• Bake for 45-50 minutes. It's hard to know if it's set using the usual skewer test, because of the creamcheese layer, but you can easily wiggle in a knife to have a look and then push it back together with no one knowing.

Jackson Pollock, eat your heart