Fresh Apricot Cake Recipes

EASY APRICOT CAKE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 9 inch round springform baking pan.
• Beat butter and 1 cup sugar until light and fluffy.
• Add eggs, one at a time, until fully incorporated.
• Stir in vanilla extract.
• Add flour, baking powder, and salt to mixture and stir until just combined.
• Pour in buttermilk, once again stirring until just combined.
• Pour batter into pan and layer with sliced apricots. Sprinkle remaining 1/4 cup sugar over apricots.
• Bake cake for 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick is inserted and comes out clean.
• Cool cake completely before serving. Serve with a dollop of whipped cream, if desired.

EASY APRICOT CAKE (UPSIDE-DOWN)

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius/ 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Butter baking dish: Take a rectangular baking dish of about 21x32 cm/ 8x13 inch and smear it with the 100 g/ 3.5 oz/ 1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon butter all over, bottom and walls of the dish. You will have a thick layer of butter all over.
• Sprinkle 100 g/ 3.5 oz/ 1/2 cup sugar only on the bottom of the baking dish.
• Halve the apricots and remove the stone. If the apricots are very large, you could quarter them. Then, place the apricots on the sugared pan carefully, cut side up, taking care not to disturb the sugar too much; the sugar should not come on top of the fruit.
• Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until the fruit starts to get soft and wrinkly.
• Beat egg whites: Shortly before the baking time for the apricots is up, separate the eggs. Beat the egg whites until stiff. Add 80 g/ 2.8 oz/ 1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon sugar and the lemon juice and continue beating until the egg whites are stiff and glossy. Set aside.
• Remove the cake from the oven. Leave to stand for 3 minutes.
• Make the batter: In the meantime, carefully fold the egg yolks into the egg white mixture. Use a hand whisk to do this, and don't overdo it. Next, add the mixed flour and baking powder over the egg mixture and fold in very carefully again; you should not overdo it either.
• Bake: Spread the mixture over the fruit, level nicely and bake for about 30 minutes. Don't open the oven during the first 20 minutes of the baking time. Check after 20 minutes and reduce the temperature to about 160 degrees Celsius/ 320 degrees Fahrenheit if you think the cake already has too much color.
• Rest: After the baking time is over, take the cake out of the oven. The cake is ready when a toothpick inserted in the batter layer comes out clean. Leave to stand for 5 to 10 minutes.
• Turn cake on a platter: Then, run a knife around the edges of the cake to release it correctly from the walls of the baking dish. Next, place a rectangular serving dish on the baking dish and reverse the cake onto the serving dish.
• Tip: At first glance, you might think that the cake is undercooked because the butter-sugar layer will look rather wet. But it is not undercooked or wet; it is just glossy because of the butter and the sugar.
• Cut the cake into squares and enjoy warm or cooled with some whipped cream on the side, if you wish.

APRICOT CAKE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven at 325°F / 165°C / Gas mark 3.
• Grease and link a 9 x 9-inch square cake pan with parchment paper for easy removal. You can also use an 8-inch round cake pan. Pro tip - I am using a springform pan but you can also use a regular square pan with a parchment sleeve for easy removal.
• Wash and wipe dry the apricots. Cut about 6 to 8 apricots into small 1-inch cubes for the batter and slice the remaining into wedges for the top. Add two tablespoons of flour (from the recipe) to the chopped apricot for the batter. Combine well and set aside.Pro tip - I like to add the flour to the apricots just before adding them to the batter (read more in the tip below).
• In a bowl, combine the all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
• In a bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter, oil, and sugar until light and airy. Pro tip - The oil will create emulsification with the batter so it looks more whipped rather than fluffy.
• Then, add the eggs, one at a time, to the batter making sure to combine each well into the batter.Pro tip - Make sure each egg is well incorporated before you add the next one to prevent the batter from curdling.
• Next, add the flour mixture and yogurt in three batches. Followed by the chopped apricots coated in flour. Combine well but do not overmix once you add the apricots. Pro tip - The flour on the apricots will act as glue to hold on to the batter. This prevents the fruit from sinking to the bottom of the batter.
• Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan, spread with an offset spatula towards the edges. Then, arrange the sliced apricot wedges all over the top. Pro tip - I like to place them in rows with the wedges facing in opposite directions as shown in the video. But you can also arrange them in any other pattern.
• Bake for 35 to 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. When baking, the fruit will soften considerably.
• When baked, brush with melted apricot jam. This is optional but does enhance the flavor of the fruit in the cake. Pro tip - If you don't have apricot jam on hand, you can also sprinkle 2 tbsp of brown sugar on the cake just before baking. It creates a nice shine over the fruit.

FRESH APRICOT UPSIDE-DOWN CAKE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375°F.
• Make topping:
• Heat butter in skillet over moderate heat until foam subsides. Reduce heat to low and sprinkle brown sugar evenly over butter, then cook, undisturbed, 3 minutes (not all of sugar will be melted). Remove skillet from heat and arrange apricot halves, cut sides down, close together on top of brown sugar.
• Make cake batter:
• Sift together flour, baking powder and soda, and salt into a small bowl.
• Beat together butter, sugar, and extracts in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until pale and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes in a standing mixer or 3 to 4 minutes with a handheld. Beat in eggs 1 at a time, then beat until mixture is creamy and doubled in volume, 2 to 3 minutes.
• Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture in 3 batches alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture, and beat just until combined.
• Gently spoon batter over apricots and spread evenly.
• Bake cake:
• If your skillet isn't ovenproof, wrap handle with heavy-duty foil (or a double layer of regular foil) before baking. Bake cake in middle of oven until golden brown and a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes.
• Wearing oven mitts, immediately invert a large plate over skillet and, keeping plate and skillet firmly pressed together, invert cake onto plate. Carefully lift skillet off cake and, if necessary, replace any fruit that is stuck to bottom of skillet. Cool to warm or room temperature.

APRICOT CAKE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Use a little of the butter to grease a 9-inch round baking pan with a removable bottom. Dust the pan with a little of the flour. Sift the remaining flour with the baking powder and salt and set aside.
• Cream the remaining butter with the brown sugar. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Stir in the flour mixture and the vanilla.
• Spread the batter in the baking pan. Arrange the apricot slices on the top. Put in the oven and bake about 25 minutes, until the top of the cake looks fairly firm and is just beginning to brown.
• Sprinkle with the granulated sugar, return to the oven and bake another 10 to 15 minutes, until the cake is nicely browned. Remove from the oven, allow to cool 10 minutes, then remove the sides of the pan. Serve the cake while it is still warm, with creme fraiche, whipped cream or vanilla frozen yogurt on the side.