Blackberry Cake

I don't have to guess where my children have their passion for free food. 

My youngest daughter even said to me the other night that it;s such a good year for blackberries. And they do seem particularly good this year, sweet and plentiful!  Although I did catch one of them planting blackberries in the veg garden to increase next years harvest!

We've been picking them pretty much every night, it doesn't take long to get a tub full and the kids just love helping to do this. At the moment I'm storing them in the freezer until I have some cooking apples ready to make a big batch of jam, as we do seem low on our jam stocks at the moment. I need to pinch some damsons from my mums and dads farm!

I have used one batch of pickings to make a blackberry cake though. So many recipes online, but I just used a normal sponge mix and chucked in the same amount of blackberries as the other ingredients (225g or 8oz depending where you are in the world). One thing I had forgotten was how much longer it takes to cook with all the fruit in it! best part of an hour I'd say and I didn't mix the cake up until gone ten at night as a last minute snack for a day out the next morning. 

It was worth the wait though as the cake was gorgeous and the children loved handing it to their friends who were with us to eat with it, knowing that they helped pick what was inside it.

What do you love to do with blackberries?

I'm sure the kids would love some more ideas!