Scottish Jam & Coconut Sponge - A Happy Schooldays Memory

Hi Honeys,
Autumn has definitely arrived. The garden is filling with leaves, there's a wee chill in the air, not enough to feel really cold just yet but noticeable enough that I've started reaching for a cardigan and thinking of adding a scarf before leaving for work.

As always happens at this time of year, my mind wanders to thoughts of comfort foods.  Not just warming evening meals I can prepare to greet my sweet, hard working Hubby when he gets home but memories are stirred of lovely childhood treats too 😋

One of the most popular posts on this blog remains my recipe for one of those childhood favourites honeys.  Scottish caramel shortbread, served with thick, warm custard, was a much loved favourite among school children of my generation and remains a happy memory for those of us... of a certain age 😊  If you haven't sampled it yet, you can find the recipe here.  Be warned though, it's seriously delicious.  I mean it's eat-a-whole-tray-with-a-spoon kinda delicious 😋 Enjoy!

I was at a loss for something to do today and I thought I'd make another childhood favourite, again served in "dinner school" the busy, noisy lunch hall of my schooldays.  Were you ever served Jammy Coconut Sponge as part of your school lunch?

As with Caramel Shortbread, this too was always served with that same thick warm custard.  The downside of course was that the custard would always form an icky, thick "skin" over the top before you even made it back to your table.  This yukky skin would just be pulled away to the side with my spoon and ignored 😊

The delicious jammy coconut sponge though, now that was always heavenly, dreamy, an absolute treat!  Let's go to the kitchen then shall we honeys, fetch our aprons and make this delicious jammy coconut sponge...


OK, aprons on dear ones? wonderful! let's assemble our ingredients and have some fun shall we 😊

 

Rosie's Scottish Jammy Coconut Sponge      

Ingredients: 

For coconut sponge cake:

225g butter or margarine  

225g self raising flour

225g caster sugar 

4 medium size eggs (3 if eggs are large) 

50g desiccated coconut

Half a teaspoon of vanilla essence 

For Topping:

Raspberry jam 

Desiccated coconut

Extras:  

Yummy warm custard - either freshly made or store bought, it's up to you honeys x  

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 320F/170 C/ gas mark 3 (150C for fan ovens) and grease your tray with a little butter or margarine. 

2. Fetch a large mixing bowl and add 225g of caster sugar.  Don't stress if you don't have caster sugar honeys, you could just use granulated sugar. 

3. Add 225g of butter or margarine to the sugar in your mixing bowl. 

4. Use a wooden spoon to cream the butter & sugar together until light and fluffy.  Alternatively either use an electric hand mixer (as I did) or use a food processor. 

5. In a small bowl beat your eggs together.  Add around half of your egg mixture to your bowl. Then  add around half of the flour to your mixing bowl too, sieving to remove lumps to add air to your cake batter. 

6.  Mix all of your ingredients together until smooth.

  

7. Sieve the remaining flour into your bowl and add the rest of your egg mixture.  Mix again thoroughly until you have a smooth mixture. An electric hand mixer (or a food processor) does this really well but it can just as easily be done with a wooden spoon honeys.  

8. Add half a teaspoon of vanilla essence to your bowl and mix well. 

9. Add 25g of desiccated coconut to your bowl and combine with your cake batter. 

  
10. Pour your sponge mixture into the greased baking tin, and lightly spread out with a flat knife or a spoon.

11. Place the baking tray into the oven (middle shelf) and bake for 12 -15 minutes until a light golden brown. 

12. To test that the sponge is done, carefully insert a knife into the middle of the sponge (taking care not to burn yourself) if it is cooked the knife should come out clean. Leave your cake, in the baking tray, to cool on a cooling rack.

13. When the sponge is cold, use a spatula or flat knife to spread your jam onto the sponge.  This cake is meant to be a real treat so be generous when slathering on that gorgeous jammy goodness honeys 😋

14. Now for the fun part 😊  Scatter the remaining desiccated coconut across the top of the jammy coated surface of the tray bake.  Be generous dear ones, cover all of that jam in yummy coconut 😊    

15. Cut into squares and serve with yummy warm custard or if you'd rather, just have a yummy slice with a lovely cuppa 😋

15. Await smiles and hugs from loved ones 😊  

yum!!

Did you have this yummy dessert at school honeys?   What are your favourite "school dinner" memories? 

This is such a treat!  Even people who aren't usually "cake people" will love it I'm sure 😊  As a tray bake it's great for gifting, as a hostess gift when having dinner with friends or even just made to enjoy with friends for a movie night.

If you'd rather, you could repeat this recipe and instead of making a tray bake, divide the cake batter between two round sponge baking trays and make a lovely coconut version of a Victoria Sponge by sandwiching the two cakes together with jam (or even with jam and cream for extra yummy-ness) and repeating the jam on the top followed by heaps of desiccated coconut 😋

I hope you're having a fabulous week dear ones, stay warm, smile lots and hug even more, till next time, huggles xx