Jam and Coconut Sponge Cake is another classic recipe in the UK that’s often associated with school dinners.
It’s a simple sponge cake with jam spread over the top and a generous sprinkle of desiccated coconut added to top it all off.
Serve with a big jug of pink custard, and you’ll be sure to invoke memories in anyone who went to school here a while back! We love to recreate old-school puddings for a bit of nostalgia. Just see our Cornflake Tart, Old School Sponge Cake, and Butterscotch Tart for more inspiration.
Coconut and Jam Sponge is an easy bake to make, and it serves plenty if it’s made as a traybake. It can be served cold or warmed up, with or without custard, so it’s a great option for feeding plenty for morning or afternoon tea or having as a pudding.
This Jam and Coconut Cake was a hit with our boys, and we’ll certainly be making it more often from now on!
I can’t find anything specific about the history of this recipe other than that it was served at school dinners, so we’ll have to assume someone just came up with it one day and the idea spread. Literally!
Things you’ll need to make Coconut and Jam Sponge Cake
- Rectangle Cake Tin measuring 9x12inches – or use a larger 9x13inch tin for a thinner cake, but you may need to reduce the cooking time slightly as it will cook through faster
- Large bowl for mixing
- Mixer or electric beater – It’s important to mix the ingredients thoroughly (but not over-mix, of course!) so use a mixer if you have one with a low setting or an electric beater set on low. If you’re sticking to a spoon and bowl, just add the ingredients slowly so you can get them all mixed together properly.
- Digital scales – for measuring the ingredients with precision. More on that later!
Ingredients for Jam and Coconut Sponge Cake
- 400g butter/margarine at room temperature
- 400g caster sugar
- 400g self-raising flour
- 1 tsp vanilla essence OR 1 tbsp lemon zest
- 7-8 medium eggs
- 150g strawberry or raspberry jam
- Desiccated coconut to taste
Butter or Margarine
Butter and margarine are interchangeable in this sponge cake, so go with what you prefer! We personally like to use Stork, a brand of margarine, as it produces a light and fluffy sponge.
To beat it with the sugar, the butter will need to be at room temperature, but margarine can be chilled.
Lemon Zest or Vanilla
We would usually go with a vanilla sponge for this Jam and Coconut traybake, but you can swap it out for lemon zest if you prefer a bit of zing in your cake and less sweetness.
Eggs
Sponge cake recipes are usually made with equal parts butter, sugar, flour, and eggs. The first three are easy to measure out, but the last one is less so!
Despite eggs being sold according to size, they can vary greatly in weight.
There are a few options for deciding if you need 7 or 8 eggs in this recipe.
Firstly, weigh the eggs in the shell. This adds around 10% per egg but does give you a close idea. Choose whichever option is closest to 400g.
Secondly, have your bowl on a scale and as you add the eggs stop at 7 or continue to 8 to get you as close to 400g as possible.
And finally, if you want to be REALLY specific, you can crack the eggs open and weigh them, and then just match the rest of the ingredients to that weight. I usually like to do this method as it’s the most specific.
This means you will end up using a random amount of flour, sugar, and butter, like 412g, or 420g, or even 395g, etc. Use an electric scale for precision!
I take another bowl and set my scale to zero with the bowl on it, then measure out 8 eggs, and match the rest of the ingredients to that amount.
When it comes to adding the eggs, I just use a spoon/fork to slide them out of the bowl and into the mixture to mix, roughly one by one.
Raspberry or Strawberry Jam
It’s really up to you which jam you use! A slightly tart jam like raspberry helps to cut through the sweetness, but there’s nothing stopping you from using any other jam as well.
You could even use totally different flavours like blackcurrant or rhubarb and ginger. Whatever you have in the cupboard, your favourite, or whatever you fancy is the best!
How to Make Jam and Coconut Sponge Cake – Step by Step Method
Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan or 350F/320F
Grease 12 x 9 inch traybake tin
Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy
Add one egg at a time and fully mix in
Add vanilla essence or zest
Sift flour and fold into the batter
Tip into greased cake tin and bang on the bench to get rid of any air pockets
Bake for 40-50 minutes
Allow to cool in the tin
Once cooled, soften the jam by heating it for about 10-20 seconds in the microwave, then spread it over the cake. If you like you can poke holes in the cake so some jam sinks in, but it’s not really necessary.
Sprinkle with desiccated coconut to finish it off.
Remove from the tin and slice into squares. Enjoy!
How to Serve Jam and Coconut Sponge Cake
You can serve Jam and Coconut Sponge the same as any cake, as is, or you can reheat and pour over some warm custard, or better yet, pink custard, for more of a pudding!
How Long Does Jam and Coconut Sponge Cake Last?
Keep this cake in an airtight container for up to 3-4 days. It will dry out the longer you keep it, so you may want to have custard with it in the later days.
Classic Jam and Coconut Sponge Cake Recipe
Jam and Coconut Sponge is a simple sponge cake, with jam spread over the top and a generous sprinkle of desiccated coconut added to top it all off.
Serve with a big jug of custard (pink custard even!) and you’ll be sure to invoke memories in anyone who went to school here a while back!
Coconut and Jam Sponge is an easy bake to make, and it serves plenty if it’s made as a traybake. It can be served cold or warmed up, and with or without custard, so it’s a great option for feeding plenty for a a morning or afternoon tea, or even a pudding.
Ingredients
- 400g Butter/Margarine at room temperature
- 400g Caster Sugar
- 400g Self Raising Flour
- 1 tsp Vanilla Essence OR 1 tbsp Lemon Zest
- 7-8 Medium Eggs
- 150g Strawberry or Raspberry Jam
- Desiccated Coconut to taste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan or 350F/320F
- Grease 12 x 9 inch traybake tin
- Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy
- Add one egg at a time and fully mix in
- Add vanilla essence or zest
- Sift flour and fold into the batter
- Tip into greased cake tin and bang on the bench to get rid of any air pockets
- Bake for 40-50 minutes
- Allow to cool in the tin
- Once cooled soften the jam by heating for about 10-20 seconds in the microwave, then spread over the cake. If you like you can poke holes in the cake so some jam sinks in, but it’s not really necessary.
- Sprinkle with desiccated coconut to finish it off.
- Remove from the tin and slice into squares. Enjoy!
Notes
Butter or Margarine
Butter and margarine are interchangeable in this sponge cake, so go with what you prefer! We personally like to use Stork, a brand of margarine, as it produces a light and fluffy sponge.
To beat it with the sugar, butter will need to be at room temperature, but margarine can be chilled.
Lemon Zest or Vanilla
We would usually go with a vanilla sponge for this Jam and Coconut traybake, but you can swap out for lemon zest if you prefer a bit of zing in your cake and less sweetness.
Eggs
Sponge cake recipes are usually made with equal parts butter, sugar, flour, and eggs. The first three are easy to measure out but the last one less so!
Despite eggs being sold according to size, they can vary greatly in weight.
There are a few options for deciding if you need 7 or 8 eggs in this recipe.
Firstly, weigh the eggs in the shell. This adds around 10% per egg but does give you a close idea. Choose whichever option is closest to 400g.
Secondly, have your bowl on a scale and as you add the eggs stop at 7 or continue to 8 to get you as close to 400g as possible.
And finally, if you want to be REALLY specific, you can crack the eggs open and weigh them, and then just match the rest of the ingredients to that weight. I usually like to do this method as it’s the most specific.
This means you will end up using a random amount of flour, sugar, and butter, like 412g, or 420g, or even 395g, etc. Use an electric scale for precision!
I take another bowl and set my scale to zero with the bowl on it, then measure out 8 eggs, and match the rest of the ingredients to that amount.
When it comes to adding the eggs, I just use a spoon/fork to slide them out of the bowl and into the mixture to mix, roughly one by one.
Raspberry or Strawberry Jam
It’s really up to you which jam you use! A slightly tart jam like raspberry helps to cut through the sweetness, but there’s nothing stopping you using any other jam as well.
You could even use totally different flavours like blackcurrant, or rhubarb and ginger. Whatever you have in the cupboard, your favourite, or whatever you fancy is the best!
And that’s our easy Coconut and Jam Sponge recipe!
Here are some other traybakes to check out:
- Old School Sponge Cake
- Tottenham Cake
- Sticky Toffee Pudding Traybake
- Kinder Bueno Brownies
- Malteser Traybake
- Biscoff Rocky Road
- Chocolate Tiffin
- Mars Bar Slice
- Biscoff Tiffin
Happy baking!
Sonja and Phil
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Lovely to find your site and enjoyed this cake recipe. I’m a longtime food blogger in Colorado whose family originally came from Isle of Skye. Have visited Scotland several times and like Sue Lawrence’s SCOTTISH BAKING when I’m at home! Best wishes and keep on cooking! PS You might consider joining Dorie Greenspan’s facebook group, which is called BAKE AND TELL–lots of bakers who share info, pix, recipes, etc.
Hello to you both, and thank you for the wonderful recipes, my Gran was Scottish and although we live in Kent, she lived with us till she died, she was a grand old lady who had worked as a scullery maid and worked her way up to cook in one of the grand houses in London. She remembered the ice fairs held on the Thames, but her food at home was always Scottish and I remember getting my knuckles rapped with the spoon for not stirring her oatmeal properly! Anyways, as kids we used to have, as well as Totham, and school cake (with pink custard) a chocolate steamed version, quite dense, but so delicious, with chocolate custard, try as I might (I’m nearly 70, and no mean baker myself)) I can’t find an authentic recipe, do you have one? Is this something others remember?
She also made clootie, but almost a blonde version, with huge lexia raisins, we always fought over ‘the shiny’ (the crust part) it went on for days, being served for breakfast warm with golden syrup and afters, sliced and fried, with lots of creamy custard, oooh my mouth is watering at the thought……….
What a wealth of amazing memories you have there. Thank you so much for sharing them with us. Do say hello to Kent for me; I was born in Chatham! Sadly we don’t have a recipe for the dessert you describe, but if you ask in our Facebook group you may be able to find more help. – Phil
Although not traditional, I do love to toast my coconut in a dry frying pan on a low heat for a few minutes before sprinkling over the sponge – it really brings out the flavour of the coconut (albeit it gives it a slight brown colour, so doesn’t look the prettiest, but tastes divine)
We would do the same if it wasn’t for the look of the browned coconut. But like you say, the taste is amazing!