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Recipes from my Lincolnshire kitchen

apricot, almond and polenta upside down traybake

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apricot cake

apricot, almond and polenta upside down traybake

It finally feels like summer here in the UK.  Saturday June 1st and the temperature has passed 24C (that’s over 70F in old money…) and quite frankly it can stay this way.  It’s glorious.  The kitchen doors are wide open to the beautiful garden and the warm air is billowing into the house whilst the fragrant air of an apricot, almond and polenta upside down traybake cake wafts out.  Apricots are in all the shops at the moment which is lovely because they’re my favourite stone fruit.  So versatile; they work just as well in savoury dishes such as a lamb tagine or roasted with a chicken as they do baked into a cake.  I love that they are both sharp and sweet at the same time (and any reader of this blog will know this is my favourite combination.) They are also such an incredible colour.  The ones I bought today have a rosy blush over them that looks like a sunset.

This cake is naturally gluten-free.  You could of course easily substitute the ground almonds and polenta for regular cake flour but I think they make the cake so light and moist and the ground almond particularly makes the whole cake take on a middle-eastern vibe which i’m loving.  The grated lemon zest adds a little zingy kick to the batter which consolidates this traybake as the taste of summer.

Just a quick one before you read the ingredients… this is genuinely the best cake i’ve ever made.  I don’t mean to sound arrogant but it really is superb.  So easy to make and just so bloody tasty!

apricot cake

for the cake

  • 225g soft unsalted butter
  • 225g caster sugar
  • 125g ground almonds
  • 100g fine polenta
  • 1 teaspoons baking powder
  • 3 large free-range eggs
  • zest of 1 lemon
  • roughly 9 apricots – halved (longways) and then each half sliced longways so you have 2 large and 2 smaller disks

Grease and line the base and sides of a 23cm x 9cm baking tray and pre-heat the oven to 180°C – sprinkle the base of the tray with Demerara sugar and set aside

In a large bowl beat the butter and sugar with an electric whisk until pale
Mix together the almonds, polenta and baking powder, and beat some of this into the butter-sugar mixture, followed by 1 egg, then alternate dry ingredients and eggs, beating all the while. Finally, beat in the lemon zest.
Lay the cut apricots into the base of the tray and and then carefully spoon the mixture into your prepared tin and bake in the oven for about 40 minutes
The cake is cooked if a skewer comes out cleanish and the edges of the cake begin to shrink away from the sides of the tin.
Remove from the oven to a wire cooling rack, but leave in its tin. When it’s cool, invert the cake onto a tray or chopping board and slice into squares to serve
apricot cake
eat and of course, enjoy!

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Comments

  1. Dan’s mum says

    I’ve just made this cake and it is delicious. I was too impatient so ate the first slice while still hot straight from the tin. I look forward to seeing it turned out once it has cooled! Thank you for a great recipe.

  4. Phil in the Kitchen says

    Blimey that looks good. I do love a good apricot but I’ve not found many to love so far this year. I’m definitely going to keep looking. I haven’t made a cake with polenta for far too long and you’re making me wonder why. This is classic comfort baking in my book.