Warm Spiced Apricot Cake (Vegan, Gluten-free)
Looking for a simple yet delicious cake for late spring and summer? Look no further than this gingery spiced apricot cake. Each bite will immerse your mind in a garden of ripe apricots and linger on your taste buds a tropical hint of gingery, orange and coconut.
Be it in late spring, mid-summer, or early September, a warm spiced apricot cake is a seasonal gem that you gotta try. What’s more? Your house will smell so amazing that you might end up staying near the kitchen with a cuppa and a good book throughout the baking time. No guilt charged!
Apricots are in season in Europe between May and September. In case they are not where you are at the moment, try our gorgeous Chocolate Pear Almond Cake that can be made all-year round.
For the lucky ones, before these bad boys disappear from the supermarket shelves for the next 9 months, grab a box of ripe apricots and start baking!
The recipe makes 8-10 servings of utterly healthy, low-fat and sugar-free treats that are ideal both as your get-together dinner finale and as a “only-for-me” dessert that can be preserved in the fridge for up to 4 days.
First up, the ingredients:
In this recipe, we won’t be adding any oil or butter. Instead, we’ll utilise the natural oil in almond flour and desiccated coconut. If you don’t have these ingredients, you can replace them with regular whole wheat flour and add 1 tbsp of coconut or olive oil.
Also, it’s important to have ripe apricots which are delicately sweet. If yours are not ripe enough, you will need to add more jam or honey to the recipe.
Prep & Bake
Wash, cut, and season your apricots with spices and jams to the level of sweetness you desire. Let them rest for a good 15-20 minutes to absorb all the flavours.
Looks and smells amazing! Reserve your slice!
Get the best piece for yourself immediately and store the rest for others or later. This’ called priority!!!
TIME TO SAVOUR! Let me know know how you like it.
Soaked in warmth and spiciness of ginger (replaceable with cinnamon or cardarmom) , this upside-down apricot cake is perfect for these late summer days when the temperature has cooled down. Yet our taste-buds will be submerging in the full summer note of tropical coconut, the freshness and mild tangy sweetness of apricots.
- 500-550 gr about 10-12 fresh apricots
- 50 gr apricot jam – Go for a sugar-free naturally-sweetened jam. I often use St. Dalfour apricot and orange/ginger in my cooking (
- 1 tbsp extra verge coconut oil melted
- 1 tbsp grated ginger **
- 1 tsp orange zest
- 20 gr ~ 3tbsp desiccated coconut
- 100 gr oat flour + 50gr coconut flour *
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp pure vanilla powder OR 1 tsp liquid vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp salt
- 300-350 ml unsweetened almond milk OR any other non-dairy milk depending on the type of flour you use. More if use almond/coconut flour (see note).
- 1 flax egg = 1 tbsp ~12gr flaxmeal + 4 tbsp water, mix and left to rest for 5mins
- 1 tbsp ~15ml apple cider vinegar OR 1 tbsp lemon juice. The acidity will react with baking soda to lift our cake a better lift
- 1 medium banana ~130gr, pureed
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Wash and pat dry the apricots De-seed and cut half of them into half and half of them into quarters
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In a large bowl, coat the apricots with orange zest, grated ginger (or substituting spice) and desiccated coconut
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Mix apricot jam with melted coconut oil and pour onto the apricot
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Mix well and let the fruit filling rest for about 10 mins so that all ingredients are fully combined together
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Line your baking tin with baking paper, greased with coconut oil.
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Layer the half apricots facing down. This will create a beautiful cake when we flip it upside down after baking
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Fill the rest of the apricots on top
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Mix flax-meal with water to make flax-egg
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Mix all wet ingredient in a blender or by hand
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In a large bowl, mix all dry ingredient together with a whisk
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Pour in the wet mixture
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Use a spatula to fold them in
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Pour this mixture on to the apricot-filled
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Bake at 175C for about 50 minutes. Poke a stick inside the cake to check for doneness. If it comes out clean, the oven job is finished!
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Let the cake cool for about 15 minutes
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Use a cutting knife to go around the inside rim to make sure nothing sticks to the side
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Place a plate on top of the baking tin
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Flip it over
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Take out the baking paper
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Cut and enjoy warm
(*) You can sub coconut with almond flour. Both are rather grainy and absorb more moist/liquid than normal flour, which make them ideal for recipes that call for less rising. They are also less bonding due to the gluten-free nature. My experience, therefore, is that the final texture will be rather grainy if Idon’t combine with some other kind of flour. In case you don’t have either, you could still be happy with any other wholegrain flour that you have in the cupboard (**) If you are not fans of ginger, replace it with 1 tsp of ground cinnamon OR ½ tsp cardamom. They are all warm spices with anti-inflammatory compound and have wonderful benefits for our metabolism.
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