Raspberry Cake and Jam

It's been an emotional weekend here - the results of IBO 2017 are more than excellent for our modest team - gold for Dimitar, silver for Gaby and bronze for Maria, the best ever results for the Bulgarian Biology team. The contestants and teachers arrived last night and we had a small family celebration with a home-made raspberry cake:

The team in Warwick University before the award ceremony:

Silver medalists:

The team on arrival:

And more raspberries - we love raspberry jam!

My latest most favourite recipe:

• 1000 g clean raspberries
• 750 g sugar
• 5 g apple pectin
• 5 g citric acid

Clean the raspberries, cover them with the sugar and leave over night in the fridge. Add the apple pectin and cook at average heat for 45 min. Add the citric acid, cook for another 5 mn. Pour the jam in clean jars while boiling hot, close with the cap and turn over until the jars have cooled. No further treatment of the jars is necessary, store in a cool and dark place and consume within a year.

I love it with pancakes!

Wild Raspberry Jam

The woods of Osogovo mountain were abundant with raspberry shrubs and the wild berries were just ripe. On the morning after the big hike the children insisted on picking some of the berries for homemade raspberry jam. I was skeptical, but we actually managed to pick more than a kilogram of berries just skimming a few shrubs.

The berries are small and somewhat sour, but very aromatic.

For this jam I used a very popular method of preparation:

1 kg raspberries

1 kg sugar

1 tsp of citric acid

Place the raspberries in a deep cooking pan and cover with sugar. Leave for 12+ hours in the refrigerator.
The sugar will melt and the raspberries will let out some of their juice. Add one cup of water and boil at low temperature until the jam thickens. Add a teaspoon of lemon acid and cook for additional 2-3 min. Pour hot jam into jars and seal.

I fill the jars with hot jam and then turn them upside down to cool. This picture was taken right after the jars had cooled and you can see the small pockets of air at the bottom, as the jam has not dropped down yet.

Today's breakfast - pancakes with raspberry jam. Yummy! I'm not exaggerating - the first bite transferred me immediately back to Osogovo, this jam is so fragrant!