Apricot Cake
When my mother went to the movies last week, l took over the kitchen to prepare a little dessert, taking advantage of her absence to indulge my sweet tooth. The stone fruit season is now in full swing, with its juicy peaches and fragrant apricots that are still a bit sour, just the way I like them… so I knew I had to bake something appropriately fruity and summery. I have prepared a quick peach cobbler, one of my favorites, scented with cardamom, and this incredibly fluffy apricot cake with apricot yogurt and fresh apricots, which I will tell you about today.
This apricot cake is very simple, because the base of the recipe is the classic yogurt cake every Italian grandma makes using the yogurt jar as a unit of measure, only with the addition of a little potato starch which makes the cake extra fluffy, and the fresh apricots, the true stars of the recipe.
Apricot Cake
Ingredients
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup apricot-flavored yogurt (or plain)
- 2/3 cup peanut or sunflower oil
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 cup potato starch
- 11/2 cups sugar
- 21/2 tsps of baking powder
- fresh apricots, about 20
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 365°F and prepare a baking pan. I used a 10-inch springform pan because I wanted the cake to be tall, but I recommend you bake the cake in a slightly larger pan, to make baking easier and faster. Line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper, grease the sides with butter, and dust with flour or breadcrumbs.
- In a small bowl sift the flour, potato starch, and baking powder together, then add the sugar and stir. In another larger bowl, pour all the liquid ingredients.4 eggs, 1 cup apricot-flavored yogurt (or plain), 2/3 cup peanut or sunflower oil, 2 cups all purpose flour, 1 cup potato starch, 21/2 tsps of baking powder, 11/2 cups sugar
- Combine the contents of both bowls by stirring gently but thoroughly with a spoon.
- Peel and quarter the apricots, and divide them in half. Chop half of the apricots into small cubes, pour them inside the batter, and save the remaining half for the top of the cake.fresh apricots, about 20
- Pour the cake batter into the previously prepared pan, then arrange the sliced apricots on top of the batter.
- Bake the cake in the preheated oven. For a small but tall pan it will take about 50 minutes, for a regular pan 35 minutes will be enough.
- While the apricot cake bakes, test it by inserting a toothpick in the middle. If the cake looks like it's baked on the surface but the toothpick still comes out moist, cover the cake with foil, and continue until finished baking.
P.S. In case someone was wondering, the flags on the cake (which in English would be called bunting, and are absolutely a must for birthday parties) are not my work, but the work of an incredibly creative girl whose name is Irene. You can find her creations at I Giorni di Carta here in Milan, one of the most adorable stores in my city.
