Blackberry Jam Cake

If you remember during our trip to Augusta last week, Meredith and I spent one afternoon with my Grandma. She makes the most amazing blackberry cake. It is everyone's favorite and we all want the end piece!! My grandma is 91 years old and turns 92 in September. She is a great cook in general. The good country cooking kind of cook! Meredith had mentioned one day wanting to take cooking lessons. I wasn't sure about that but thought if my granny was up to it maybe she would like to show us how to make a Blackberry cake. I text my aunt to see. We set up a day and time. I bought all the ingredients and showed up on Friday for our lesson!!

My grandmother's house

just a few of the ingredients

One of the things I loved about learning how to make the cake with my grandma was asking her questions and hearing how she started making the cake. My great grandmother, my grandmother's mother in law, Mom Habermehl (as she was known to everyone), always made a blackberry cake any time she had company. According to my grandma, that was pretty much every Sunday!! My grandma learned how to make it from just watching her!

This cake is going to be hard to recreate on our own. As you can see in the recipe, there is no bake time. Grandma just knows when it is done. She says when she can smell the cake that's when she knows it is done. Also, she mentioned that it's hard to make the cake as moist as hers. She shared with us how she did it. I am keeping that secret weapon up my sleeve:)

While the cake was baking Meredith and I sat at the kitchen table just chatting away. It was nice having the one on one time with Mere and Grandma. Normally, when we are there the house is full to the brim with people. My Grandma had 7 kids! My dad was the only boy. So there are lots of cousins, aunts and uncles!! I love holidays for that very reason. The more the merrier!!

Once the cakes were done and cooled, we started on the best part of the cake.....the Carmel icing!! This too is going to be a little tricky. You boiled all the ingredients on the stove. Again, she says she just "knows" when it is done. Then she places the pan in cold water for a little bit.

The cake turned out delicious. Of course, with grandma right there beside us , it would be hard not to taste as amazing as hers. I can't wait to try making it on our own. What a fun day to spend with Mere and my grandma!