Sticky Plum Jam Cake

This cake is based on a marmalade cake recipe from Linda Collister. Not being a huge fan of marmalade I decided to make a few adjustments and turn it in to a lovely, sticky jam cake. This is a simple cake, and the taste is by no means complex, but it is tasty, and really, that's the main thing isn't it?

Ingredients:

For the cake:

• 175g unsalted butter, softened
• 175g caster sugar
• 3 large eggs, beaten
• 175g self-raising flour
• A pinch of salt
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 3 tbsp good quality plum jam (with nice big chunks of fruit in)
• 2 tbsp full fat milk

For the top:

• 3 tbsp plum jam
• 100g icing sugar
• 1 1/2 tbsp warm water

Method:

• Preheat oven to gas mark 4 and grease and line a 20cm round cake tin.
• Beat the butter in a bowl until creamy. 
• Gradually add the sugar, beating all the while. Continue to beat until the mix is pale and fluffy.
• Gradually add the eggs, beating well after each addition. Add one tablespoon of the flour with the last bit of egg.
• Sift the rest of the flour, salt, and baking powder in and gently fold in with a large metal spoon until thoroughly combined.
• Add the jam and milk and stir in. (It is tempting at this point to add extra jam, but try to resist this temptation - too much and the cake will sink).
• Spoon the mixture in to the cake tin and bake for 50 to 55 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean.
• Remove the cake from the tin and leave on a cooling rack.
• Put the rest of the jam in a small saucepan and gently heat. Brush over the top of the cake (you can pierce the top of the cake in a few places to allow extra jammy goodness to seep in to the cake, but it's just as tasty if you don't). Leave to cool completely before adding the icing.
• Mix the icing sugar and water in a bowl until smooth. This should make icing of a runny consistency which is what we want for the icing to run down the sides of the cake, and to have bits of the jam showing through. Drizzle or spoon the icing over the cake, and enjoy.