Peach jam is often overly sweet, so to counteract this I like to add soft herbs to balance the sweetness.
In the 1980s, my brother Godfrey used to make sponges using this recipe, which came from the local public health nurse, Ailsa Gathergood. Godfrey, then a sheep farmer, busy entrepreneur and father of five, reckoned the secret was to ‘beat the s--t out of it’. Use electric beaters, even if you have forearms honed by wrangling sheep and small kids.
