An Ottolenghi bake that I tweaked, it uses blitzed hazlenuts & ground almonds rather than flour for nutty, moist, crumbly texture.
I’ve always thought of apricots as a bit of a ‘meh’ fruit when raw. However they are sweet and jammy when cooked and sink to the bottom whilst holding their shape.
The trick to this cake is the blitzing of the walnuts to a course powder for an intense nuttiness and dark crumb.
Ottolenghi uses a thin lemon icing, I wanted a bit of crunch so switched to lemon sugar syrup.
Serves 10-12
For the cake:
185g unsalted butter softened
220g caster sugar
4 eggs
120g ground almonds
120g blitzed walnuts
90g self raising flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 lemon (zest)
15 apricots (halved and pitted)
For the crunchy syrup:
1 lemon (juice)
100g granulated sugar
Method:
Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4/ 350°F
Grease and line with baking parchment a 23cm round cake tin
In an electric mixer or by hand beat together the butter, sugar, lemon zest and vanilla until pale
Blitz the walnuts in a food processor and in a separate bowl mix them together with the flour and ground almonds
Beat the dry ingredients into the butter and sugar a few tablespoons at a time, followed by an egg until all are combined
Cover the bottom of the tin with the apricot halves then pour over the cake mix
Leave to bake for 60-70 minutes (cover the top of the cake with tin foil if the top starts browning too much)
Make the lemon syrup by mixing together the lemon juice and sugar in a bowl
When cake is baked leave it in tin for 10 minutes until partially cooled, then remove revealing the underside of fruit
Prod with a cake tester and pour over the lemon syrup
Dust with icing sugar