Apricot Upside Down Cake

Luscious, plump, sweet and simply delicious balls of apricoty goodness.  It would appear that people have trees laden with these little treasures this year.  If you have the sweet problem of what to do with a glut of apricots after making jam, preserving, stewing, freezing them… or perhaps you are wanting to use up some frozen or preserved apricots, you will want to try this cake!!

I have been making this cake for years using a variety of stone fruit, so long as the fruit is flavoursome this cake is a sure fire winner.  I hope you enjoy it as much as my family and friends do.

Apricot Upside Down Cake

Ingredients

155g (30g + 125g) butter 1/3 cup brown sugar 800g apricots, halved, stones removed 1 cup castor sugar 1 tsp vanilla essence 3 eggs 1/2 cup almond meal 1  1/2 cups self raising flour, sifted

Method

Preheat oven to 160 degrees fan forced.  Grease a 22cm springform round cake pan.  Line base with baking paper and grease the sides.

Melt 30g butter.  Drizzle evenly over the base of the pan.  Sprinkle with brown sugar.  Place apricot, skin side down, in the pan to cover the base.

Beat the remaining 125g butter, castor sugar and vanilla at high speed until pale and creamy.  Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.

Using a large spoon, gently fold in the almond meal and flour.  Spoon mixture over the apricots.

Smooth surface and pop into the oven.

Bake for 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.  Stand cake in the pan for 10 minutes. 

Release the sides of the springform pan and remove.  The cake should be fairly solid, so be brave and place your serving plate on the top of the cake and turn upside down, so the cake is now on the plate. 

Carefully remove the base of the pan and baking paper.  If you are lucky you will get a nice drizzle of the caramel running down the sides of  your cake.

This cake is best eaten warm or at room temperature with a generous dollop of whipped cream or ice cream.

A note from Gracious Goodness :

Fruit – you can easily substitue the apricots for any stone fruit.  This recipe started its days as a Satsuma Plum upside down cake.  But I’ve also made it with peaches and it was lovely! 

Fresh, frozen or preserved fruit – you choose! Just make sure your fruit is well drained if using frozen or preserved.  You will see from the apricot photo collage that my apricots were frozen and partially stewed… not the most attractive but still tasted delish!

Sweetness – adjust the amount of sugar used to your own preferences and also the sweetness of your fruit.  If you have particularly sweet stone fruit then you can safely reduce the sugar in the cake.  Lilkewise if you know you are serving with sweet cream or ice cream, there is no need to add the full quota of castor sugar.  I would keep the brown sugar quantity though… nothing like caramelised fruit on a cake to make me drool!

I would make this recipe at least once a month. Please try it because I know you are going to love it!!

Sandra xo