Thursday 19 August 2010

Apricot- vanilla Cake

Its been a while since I baked a cake and I terribly miss it. We have been gorging on fresh fruit as dessert since summer started and suddenly two days back, I realized I hadn't baked in a while and was craving some nice upside down cake. Had some canned apricots and strangely all the ingredients for a plain vanilla cake. Ro was playing badminton that night and I knew he'd be late, so I decided to go ahead and bake instead of making dinner (which was leftover mince meat and chapathi). 
I am such a sucker for vanilla or rather plain cakes, that I was floored with the first bite I took. The apricots added that grandeur to an otherwise plain cake and half way through I decided I didn't want to do an upside down cake, but just incorporate the apricots into the cake. Keep it for one more day, and I'd say it tasted even better.

Recipe halved from here
Plain flour- 1 cup + 1 tbsp
Self raising flour- 1 1/4 cups 
Baking powder- 1 1/4 tsp
Salt- 1/4 tsp
Sugar- 1 cup
Butter- 1/2 cup
Eggs- 2
Vanilla extract- 2 tsp
Evaporated milk- 1/2 cup

Canned apricots- 400 gms
Sift together all the dry ingredients- both the flour, baking powder and salt. Keep aside.
In a mixer with paddle attachment or with a hand beater, cream together till fluffy the sugar and butter.
Add the eggs one after the other, beating well after each addition.
Pour in the vanilla extract and then fold in dry ingredients, alternating with the evaporated milk making sure you start and end with the dry ingredients.
Preheat the oven to 160C, butter and line a 9" square spring form pan with baking paper.
Pour the cake batter into the pan and line the apricot halves hollow side down in whichever way you fancy.
Bake for about 40 to 50 minutes or till the skewer test comes out positive.
Let it stay in the pan for about 5 minutes, before turning it out onto a cooling rack.
Dab some cream or ice cream and serve with a smile.
Notes: I halved the recipe, you can double it and make a layer cake, adding the apricots sliced and mixed with the cream frosting.
You can skip the salt and baking powder if using self raising flour. The original recipe calls for cake flour.
The cake was super duper soft and yumm is all i can say.

33 comments:

aipi said...

I love fruit based cakes, and this one looks n sounds awesome..definitely book marking it:)
btw, your second picture is just Stunning!!

Unknown said...

LOved the cake....but loved more the snaps..awesome dear...

Satrupa said...

The cake looks gorgeous .... itz luv at first sight :)

Cheers n Happy Cooking,
Satrupa
http://satrupa-foodforthought.blogspot.com

Sanyukta Gour(Bayes) said...

looks superyum n amazing..mm..mm..mmm...sinfully deadly moist cake

Tanvi said...

You ve made such a delish looking cake with a handful of ingredients! Superb!

GB said...

I adore apricots!! The recipe looks great...very little butter/sugar considering all that flour!! super duper soft sounds delish! :)

Satya said...

apricot vanilla cake looks so soft and perfect... wonderfull clicks...n it tempt me more...

Satya
http://www.superyummyrecipes.com

Torviewtoronto said...

looks delicious and beautiful

Vrinda said...

I haven't used apricots in my cakes yet,sounds wonderful..yummy cake n click....

Guna's kitchen said...

luks heavenly.... so soft and spongy... bookmarked it.. beautifully clicked

Monet said...

I've never tried an apricot cake before, and I don't know why because this looks delicious. The cream frosting puts it over the top

Suji said...

Adipoli pictures Nisha..Loved the cake..

Nitha said...

Thats a perfect piece of cake..

Unknown said...

Ouch! vibrant pic Nisa, you have got amazing texture for the cake, those little crumb..Am having my morning tea, can very happily have a big bit of ur cake :)

Akanksha said...

good one..nice pictures

Priya Suresh said...

Soft and spongy cake looks irresistible..

Pavithra Elangovan said...

WOw looks truly tempting and the first picture is stunning..the texture of the cake is so good and i am craving for some now.

Alisa said...

The cake looks wonderful.I'll be saving this to make it soon.I hope you won't mind,I'd love to guide Foodista readers to this post.Just add the foodista widget to the end of this post and it's all set, Thanks!

Pavithra Srihari said...

very true anything that is plain in cake i am there ... this one is tempting me a lot ...

Unknown said...

Perfect cake

Suman Singh said...

beautiful presentation...and the cake looks incredibly delicious...

turmericnspice said...

loved the recipe...love the color of the fruit....as sharmilee said perfect

Cool Lassi(e) said...

That is really some cake. So moist and beautifully baked! Yum!

GB said...

Nisha, thank you so much for voting for my room! I really appreciate all your help.

Gagan

Pari Vasisht said...

The cake looks amazingly soft, love the clicks.
FOODELICIOUS

Pari Vasisht said...

Beautifully baked and clicked.
FOODELICIOUS

Nithu said...

Looks so yummy. Must try.

Fathima said...

nice cake... loved the clicks... bright and coloful...

Suja Manoj said...

soft and moist..gorgeous cake, loved the clicks

Lawyer Loves Lunch said...

I also loved fruit based cakes! This one looks so moist and perfect! My only issue is that I've never seen canned apricots (not that I've looked). I've definitely got to take a look :)

Unknown said...

Fabulous pictures as usual..Your pictures are tempting me to try them out sometime..

Sarah Naveen said...

Beautiful clicks..looks awesome..

Unknown said...

Hi there
thank you for the tip, never really thought of buying the lavender plant, which makes a lot of sense!!! the apricot cake looks amazing by the way, just thought I would leave you the link for my blog in English as the one where you left your comment I write in Portuguese for my friends back home!
take care!
http://thecosmicgirlinenglish.blogspot.com/