Apricot Cake Provençal – Simple Elegance

A moist summer cake that’s delicate but flavourful and yet, deeply satisfying and so dam easy to make Apricot Cake Provençal is a real show stopper. Building on a theme, another easy, delicious recipe, using one just bowl. I love one bowl cakes, fewer dishes, less fuss, just measuring, mixing and baking.

Let’s Talk Technique

Three important points of technique to note in this recipe:

1. Beat in your eggs, one at a time. (Even when they’re double yokers!)
2. Don’t over mix. Mix until *just* blended to avoid activating the gluten too much. It’s cake, not bread. Easy does it.
3. Use as much fruit as your cake will hold. Apricots will shrink slightly when you bake. This is a case when more is better!

Yup, there’s a lot of beating involved. I don’t often use an electric/stand mixer for posts these days. I could, but I don’t, because not everyone has an electric mixer and that becomes a barrier to good results. I want you to be able to replicate this recipe PERFECTLY, so I ‘old school’ it with a good old fashioned wooden spoon and spatula.

If you have a trusty Kitchen Aid, feel free to use it. But to be honest, with cakes, unless a recipe involves whipping egg whites or working with hot sugar, I find I get much more uniform results with a little elbow grease.

Recipes You Can Count On

When developing recipes for Food Gypsy I work toward consistent, achievable results. It should look the same on my table, as it does on yours. This is the third incarnation of this variation on a classic French recipe, and now I’m completely happy with how it tastes, rises and holds.

To me, this is how you build trust with you the reader, dependable results that you can count on, every single time. If you honour the technique, and use the same ingredients, with the same measurements, you’ll knock this cake out of the park!

Bonding & Baking

Should you ever have questions on Apricot Cake Provençal or ANY recipe posted on Food Gypsy, or experience a result that’s less than perfect, please post a comment here, on the blog. If I can, I’ll help you identify where things jumped the rails, and how to adjust for next time.

Same goes if you make a recipe, new or old, and LOVE it. Take a picture and share it with me on one of my social media channels so I can share how amazing you are with others! Food is all about connection… and in these times we could all use a little bit more of that.

Until next time, be well and BAKE well.

Apricot Cake Provençal – Simple Elegance

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5 from 1 review

• Author: Cori Horton
• Total Time: 1 hour 15 mins
• Yield: 1 cake 1x

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Description

A simple French classic, Apricot Cake Provençal combines the subtly of almond flour and the tart tang of apricots for a cake that looks great and stays moist for days.

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Ingredients

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• 10 – 14 fresh apricots
• ¼ cup salted butter, soft
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 3 large eggs, room temperature
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons almond extract
• 1 1/2 cups almond flour
• 1/3 cup *all-purpose flour (substitute gluten free flour)
• 1 tablespoon butter, to coat pan
• 2 tablespoons icing or fine sugar

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Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350⁰F (175⁰C) prepare 8” round cake pan (or 9” cake pan, see notes) by smearing inside liberally with butter and cutting a round of parchment to fit the bottom of the pan.
2. Wash and prepare your fruit, splitting and pitting the apricots. Reserve cold until needed.
3. In one large bowl, beat butter until smooth and creamy.
4. Add sugar and beat well, until creamy.
5. Add eggs, one at a time, beating in between, to fully incorporate into batter.
6. Add vanilla and almond extracts. Beat. Again.
7. Add both almond and all-purpose (or gluten free flour), beating… in case you didn’t guess… until JUST smooth. Don’t overwork your batter (see notes above). Pour batter into your prepared pan. Place apricots, on cake, fitting as many on the surface as it can hold.
8. Once loaded with apricots, place cake in preheated 350⁰F (175⁰C) oven for 30 minutes and test cake. Reduce temperature to 300⁰F (150⁰C) and finish baking for about another 10 – 12 minutes. Until toothpick is mostly clean, with a few crumbs still clinging to it. This way your cake will stay moist for days in the fridge.

Notes

Times noted are based on a 8” round cake pan, please note that if you’re sing a 9” round pan that you must be sure to reduce overall baking time, perhaps closer to 25 minutes at 350⁰F (175⁰C) and 8 minutes at 300⁰F (150⁰C).

• Prep Time: 35 mins
• Cook Time: 40 mins
• Category: Cake
• Cuisine: French