Apricot Upside Down Cake
With salted honey & chamomile ice cream
Hello! Today I have a nice, quick bake for you. Upside down cake isn’t something that I’ve made much of and I’m not sure why, it’s so tasty and doesn’t require too much messing around. This cake uses caramelised honey, orange blossom and apricot kernels to boost the flavour and its all made in the blender so it’s super speedy!
Developing this recipe actually gave me more trouble than I anticipated, I had several absolute flops involving my apricots sticking to the tin, however, I’ve struggled so that you don’t have to and I think I’ve finally discovered the secret to preventing this from happening, spoiler, it’s using a springform pan and double lining your tin.
Even though this cake is delicious by itself, I’ve also included a honey & chamomile ice cream recipe which pairs really beautifully with it. If chamomile isn’t your thing, you can swap it out with a different tea or just leave it out for a plain honey ice cream.
Let’s get on with it…
Apricot Upside Down Cake With Salted Honey & Chamomile Ice Cream
You’ll need - a 7” (18cm) springform cake tin, 8” is also ok! An ice cream churner, I use the Kitchenaid ice cream attachment, hammer, probe thermometer.
Ingredients
100g runny honey, I used Black Bee SummerHoney (not sponsored)
20g butter
8-10 apricots (save the stones!)
50g soft butter
50g extra virgin olive oil
100g eggs (about 2 medium eggs)
120g light brown sugar
Zest of 1/2 an orange
1 tsp orange blossom water
50g ground almonds (whole or flaked almonds also work here, we’re going to blitz them anyway)
8 apricot kernels* OR 1/2 tsp almond extract
70g plain flour
4g baking powder (1 scant tsp)
1/4 tsp salt
*these can be toxic if consumed in large amounts, has a great article about them here. If you don’t feel comfortable with them or plan on eating more than three slices of cake multiple days in a row, just leave them out to be safe.
Method - Apricot Upside Down Cake
Preheat the oven to 180°C fan (355°F) and grease and line your springform tin, line the base twice, this helps to prevent sticking later.
Roast the ground almonds for 15-20 minutes until golden brown. Set aside to cool and drop the oven temperature to 160°C fan (320°F).
In a small pan, heat the honey on high until it starts to caramelise, I do this by eye but, if you want to take the temperature, around 165°C (330°F) is about right.
Add the 20g of butter, stir in and then pour into the base of your lined cake tin, leave for a few minutes to set.
Cut the apricots in half, saving the stones, and arrange in the bottom of the pan, there should be slight gaps between the apricots, if it’s overcrowded, it can be difficult to get it out of the tin later.
Optional: To remove the apricot kernels (noyaux) wrap the stones in a clean tea towel and bash with a hammer, unwrap and pick out any bits of shell.
Place the butter, oil, sugar, eggs, zest, orange blossom, ground almonds and apricot kernels in a blender or food processor and blend until completely smooth.
Add the flour, baking powder and salt and blend or mix by hand until just combined.
Pour the cake batter over the apricots and honey caramel, spread out and bake for 40-50 minutes until it bounces back in the middle and a skewer comes out clean.
As soon as the cake comes out of the oven, set a timer for 10 minutes.
When the timer goes off, run a knife around the edge of the tin and remove the base. Place a plate on top, flip and carefully remove the baking paper.
Serve warm or at room temperature, this cake will keep for up to 4 days.
