That's Just The Ulcers Cooking-and a Spiced Peach Jam Cake

One of the weird things about having bleeding ulcers (how many cooking blog entries start with a sentence like that?) is a constant feeling of hunger. It sort of feels like the inside of my stomach is being scoured out with a bristle brush. As a result, I tend to crave things like bread and cakes. It does help-for the first couple bites, before the pain returns and I know I won't be eating much more of whatever I've baked. Add to that difficulty with swallowing, and the carbs tend to be even finer crumbed.

Looking through the blog, I have to laugh at the number of carb-dense things I've been baking. They always sound so good until I actually have to eat. I'm reminded of the old Malt-O-Meal commercial of "Edgar, this is your tummy speaking." Except my tummy is riddled with bleeding ulcers and wants cake, not Malt-O-Meal. Actually, does anyone ever want Malt-O-Meal?

So today, the ulcers wanted cake again, knowing full-well that half of it will end up frozen with the rest of the cakes the ulcers wanted. I'm telling you, if company decides to 'drop by", I'm more than set with emergency cake provisions. I could feed the whole county.

Last summer, I did an awful lot of canning, and as a result have plenty of jam sitting on a shelf waiting to be used. Ordinarily, jam cake is made with blackberry jam and a good shot or five of bourbon. Having neither, I went with peach jam and vanilla extract. I really only like gin, and lets face it-it doesn't add much to a cake, though I've seen recipes that use it in frosting.

My only problem with this cake is that it isn't very tall. To my mind, cakes baked in a tube pan ought to have some height, but really I'm just being picky. While it looks rather plain, the spices work nicely with the jam and the result is a very moist, flavourful cake. It also uses up a cup of my lovingly made peach jam.

You could make this cake with blackberry or raspberry jam if you want to keep it traditional. I wouldn't use marmalade or anything with a rind, but keep in mind what spices go well with what fruit. I don't think strawberry or lingonberry would work well with cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg. Apricot might. Either way, you end up with a nice, moist cake that even the most discerning bleeding ulcers are sure to love.

You Will Need:

3/4 cup unsalted butter
1 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup peach preserves/jam
21/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or 2 tablespoons bourbon)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Grease a 9 inch tube pan.

Beat butter and sugar together until light. Beat in eggs one at a time. Sift the dry ingredients together.

Fold the jam into the butter/sugar mixture. Add vanilla. Alternate the flour mixture with the milk and keep folding in until it is all added.

Pour into prepared pan and place on a baking sheet. Bake 50-60 minutes or until it tests done. Cool in pan on rack, loosen and remove. Cool completely before serving.