Rhubarb and Rosehip Jam Cake

This cake looks really amateur-ish next to my other recent bakey delights such as the Raspberry and Chocoalte Cake and  Strawberry Cake.  Why amateurish?  If you look closer you can see at the top what I can only call 'pot-holes' caused by the excess juices from  the fresh rhubarb.  I could have easily covered it over with some cream cheese frosting, but I decided to scatter over some purple coloured sugar, icing sugar and some sugared almonds to distract attention from the visible flaws. It sort of, well kind of did the job.

I had a jar of Rosehip Jam that I made a long long while ago, so I thought instead of sandwiching the two sponge cakes together with rhubarb and ginger jam which was my original plan, I would do so instead with the Rosehip Jelly. In spite of how it looked, it was truly a lovely combination and tasted quite good. 

The taste reminded me a little of bakewell tart but in sponge form.  Serve a slice of this cake with a massive dollop of whipped cream.

An i I am sharing this Rhubarb and Rosehip Jam Cake with Kate of What Kate Baked who has chosen layer cakes for this month's Tea Time Treats . Tea Time Treats is co-hosted by Karen of Lavender and Lovage.

Rhubarb and Rosheip Jam Cake

Foraging Eyes

Those of you who read my blog regularly and know me of sorts, will know that I am keen novice forager.  Last year I went stinging nettle crazy, this year wild garlic mad.  Yet, I have so much to learn.  I would so dearly love to one day spend a weekend (or even a week) with a professional forager learning not just about edible wild weeds on the land, but also those that grow on the beach and sea such as seaweed.  Ah maybe one day that opportunity will come my way.

Back to my reality, sadly I have not been able to forage as much as I would like; as circumstances in my life are making me hesitant.  For a start, D doesn't want us to be transporting excess and fragile glass jars full of edible delights for when we eventually move down to Wales.  The greedy woman in me would happily ignore him, but the fact is that we also have little money to buy glass jars, and there are only so much glass jar and bottle recycling a couple can do.  So I reserve these foraging pleasures for next year.  Instead I thought I'd share with you some of my foraging forays, as well as free wild food I've been seeing around me for easy picking.

A couple of years ago,  I found elder flowers and made elderflower champagne, sadly this year I have watched the elderflowers  and the elderberries shrink before my eyes.

I saw these blackberries in North Wales, the brambles I've stumbled upon in Scotland, including those growing in my garden have been a disappointment.  They are either shrivelled or virtually non existent due to the harsh constant rain hitting them.  So it looks like no Blackberry Jam or Apple and Blackberry Crumble for me this year.

I had the opportunity to harvest dog rose and rose hips for rosehip jelly and rosehip syrup, but like I said I hardly have any jars, so sadly I will just have to watch them turn to mush. 

I think this is hawthorn berries; or is it rowan berry?  Anyway, I see both of them hanging like Christmas tree decorations - but have to walk on by.

 This excited me the most - its sea buckthorn.   

I had my first ever buckthorn shot last year - its sure is zingy and powerful in the mouth.

Its not all bad though, I found some sloe berries.  This time a lot more than my find last year that made a very weak sloe gin.  Not this time. The sloe berries are tucked in my parents freezer in Wales, awaiting for me to move there and then transform them into sloe gin. 

I mentioned in an earlier post, that the apple tree in my garden this year has been battered by the cruel wind and rain.  There are zero apples in the tree that when the punky waxwings and fairfield arrive, they won't hang around for long and fly on by.  Fortunately its not been that bad for me.  Although I didn't get any home grown apples for jam, I did forage for some mis-shapen cooking apples.  These have already greedily been consumed in the form of Apple Cider Cake (which I have yet to share), as well as Cinnamon Apple Shortcakes.

And finally I cannot forget those eating apples from my fathers allotment plot; and pears from my mothers garden.  Talking of pears...I have seen some growing not that far from where we presently live, but I don't think I will get to them - chances are the wind will have knocked them down before I get a chance to forage for some on my return. 

Classic Rosehip Jelly

Rose hips ripe and ready for the picking.

A couple of days ago, I went into work much earlier with plans to pick fresh rose hips from the bush. Unfortunately, as feared many of the fat pink hued globe baubles were just too mish mash. Others were frankly rotten by recent heavy downpours. However, I did manage to pick just under 500g and this is what I did with them: make my first jars of rose hip jelly.
I am looking forward to spreading it on some waffles and pancakes in the coming months, and tasting its wonderful zingy flavour.

I have to admit that I found making the jelly a bit of a palaver. I don’t have strainer or a jelly bag, so had to start of using my colander first lined with muslin. I don’t have this gadget in the house, so had to be a little inventive. This was made even more difficult as I also did not have any stools, so I ended up upturning one of my nesting table and the muslin cloth was tied to my Turkish rolling pin. My husband laughed at my contraption. I responded, well it works.

Very slowly it dripped.

I had a taste, it tastes rather zingy at this stage. Another thing I noted, because its called rose you assume the colour is going to be a rosy-pink. This is not the case. I looked at the juices, it was more faint orange. I looked at the photographs of other peoples rose hip jelly and noted a similar shade, so felt much better. The greedy and impatient person in me thought ‘All that work and I only managed to get 1 pint of rose hip juice’. But this recipe did exactly what it said, makes 3 x 225ml jars, except my jars were a touch larger 245ml.

Classic Rose hip jelly from WI
Makes: about 3 x 225 ml jars
Prep: 45 minutes, plus straining overnight
Ingredients
500 g ripe rose hips, stray leaves, stems and flowers removed
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 kg crab or cooking apples, roughly chopped, including cores, pips, skin
Caster sugar
Method
Wash and drain the rose hips. Chop roughly and put into a preserving pan with the lemon juice, apples and enough water to just cover. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 30 minutes until soft. Mash thoroughly to extract as much juice as possible. Strain through a jelly bag or muslin-lined nylon sieve, set over a large bowl. Do not press the fruit or squeeze the bag as this will make the jelly cloudy. Leave until the dripping stops. This may take several hours or even overnight.

Next, measure the liquid and return it to the pan along with 450 g (1 lb) sugar for each pint (600 ml) of liquid. Stir well over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved. Increase the heat and boil rapidly for 5–10 minutes. Test your jam for a set — setting point is 105C (220F). If necessary, boil for a further minute then test again. Continue testing at one-minute intervals, as necessary, until the jelly has reached setting point. Remove the pan from the heat, skim off any scum and allow to cool briefly. Carefully pour into hot, sterilised jars. Seal the jars and allow the jelly to cool completely before labelling and storing. This classic Rose hip jelly comes from the Women’s Institute Book of Preserves, but I got the recipe from here.