Things to do with preserved fruit

Late last summer, I made bilberry and blackberry jam.

Bilberry and blackberry jam

It's OK, but not that great. It didn't set very well and the flavour's not particularly strong. I find my heart sinking at the prospect of working my way through the umpteen jars of it still in the cupboard. This is not good. I need another use for it.

Thinks...

Cake is good!

I added a couple tablespoonfuls to my usual cupcake recipe, reducing the sugar content slightly to compensate (6 oz flour, 3 oz each of butter and sugar, reduced to 2 oz sugar, 2 eggs, bicarb/cream of tartar*, skip the vanilla essence). The result was excellent! Soft, moist sponge cake, distinct but not overwhelming fruit flavour. Note: If you try this recipe, make sure you put enough cream of tartar in. I reduced the quantity the second time, thinking there'd be enough acid in the fruit to make the bicarb fizz (there was) and it changed the colour of the cakes from pink (cooked to brown on top, looking deceptively like chocolate cake) to dark blue. Not so appetising. Still tasty, though.

My second experiment was not so much about using up preserved fruit as making a special treat. I made damson fruit leather (amongst others) at around the same time as I was making jams. These have kept very well in not-very airtight tins - some have got a bit sticky, but all are still tasty and no sign of mould. A while ago I tried the damson one with a little mascarpone cheese. The result was heaven! I decided to save the rest to serve like this as party food.

So it was that on Saturday evening, I was cutting damson fruit leather into little squares and making little cheese sandwiches, with a good dollop of mascarpone between each pair of squares. And then I forgot to get them out of the fridge with the rest at Sunday lunchtime. I remembered them in the evening, and got them out, by which time the fruit leather had drawn nearly all the moisture out of the cheese, making the cheese firm instead of creamy and the leather squidgy instead of firm. The net result was very disappointing. Top tip: Don't bother making these in advance for guests, make them and eat them immediately, all for yourself.

To rescue the situation, I whizzed the sandwiches up with milk and sugar (that sounds like I just stuck it all in the blender and pushed the button. I did, but there was also a lot of poking it with a wooden spoon handle), whisked a couple of egg whites I had left over, and I now have damson and mascarpone ice cream setting in the freezer.

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* I ran out of baking powder a while back and used a mixture of bicarbonate of soda and cream of tartar instead, and the result was much better. No more baking powder for me!