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This recipe makes a delicious and gooey butterscotch cake topped with caramelised seasonable fresh apricots.
Make the most of this summer stone fruit in this cake that can be served at morning or afternoon teas or as a warm or chilled dessert with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.
I am not going to lie, anything with caramel in a cake or dessert gets my attention. Every time I make this cake, it gives me goosebumps, it’s that good!
Aussie Inspiration
I was fortunate to be given a huge bowl of fresh apricots by my friendly neighbours recently, so without a second thought, I headed to my favourite cookbooks to get some inspiration to use all these apricots.
Belinda Jeffery has a gift for producing nostalgic and delicious Australian baking recipes. I settled on her butterscotch peach cake, one of my favourites, and naturally swapped the fruit for apricots and tweaked the gluten ingredients to make this incredible gluten-free cake.
Other fruits to use
Besides using fresh apricots that are in plenty supply in Vienna now, other stone fruits such as peaches, nectarines or plums work well in this cake. As do pears and apples, but these can be used in Autumn when stone fruit slows down. It’s well worth making the most of seasonable fruit whenever we can, not only are they more affordable, but are at their prime in terms of taste and nutrition.
Fresh versus tinned fruit
Fresh is best in this cake recipe as the tinned fruit tends to be soft already and can cook to a pulp but if you are not bothered by the mushy appearance, the flavour will still be there when using tinned. Make sure to remove the sweet liquid and pat the fruit with some paper towels to take any excess moisture away.
GOOD TO KNOW!
- Use a sealed tin not a springform tin as it will leak. Otherwise, wrap the springform tin in foil from the outside to prevent any leakage of the caramel sauce.
- Don’t let the cake cool down completely while in the tin or the caramel will stick to the sides and bottom making it impossible to remove the cake intact.
- Mix it up with other stone fruits, like my stone fruit cake recipe, it’s a fantastic way of enjoying different fruit flavours in one bite.
- Don’t worry if the cake looks dark on top with caramel sauce on the side of the tin. It’s a good sign to see the caramel sauce bubbling around the cake. This means the butter mixture has caramelised nicely while baking and absorbed into the cake, but mostly into the succulent apricots.
- This is a good make-ahead dessert that can be easily served warm by heating it up in the microwave directly on the serving plate.
Gluten-Free Butterscotch Apricot Cake
Equipment
Ingredients
Apricot Caramel Topping
- 80 g butter
- 100 g dark brown sugar
- ¼ tsp salt
- 13-14 fresh apricots
Butterscotch Cake
- 100 g almond meal
- 90 g store-bought or homemade gluten-free self-raising flour
- 150 g caster sugar
- 3 eggs
- 170 g butter, at room temperature, cubed
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Extra
- 2 tbsp golden or maple syrup for brushing the apricots
- whipped cream or vanilla ice cream to serve
- several fresh mint leaves to decorate (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F.
- Line the base of a square tin 22 cm x 22 cm with baking paper. Set aside.
Apricot Caramel Topping
- Cut the apricots in half and remove the stone. Set aside.
- Melt the butter in a small saucepan over low heat.
- Add the brown sugar and salt, stirring until the sugar has dissolved and darken.
- Pour the butter mixture into the prepared cake tin, spreading it evenly over the bottom.
- Arrange the halved apricots skin side facing up snuggly over the butter mixture. Set the cake tin aside.
Butterscotch Cake
- In a medium bowl, whisk the almond meal and flour together. Set aside.
- Using a food processor, add the sugar and eggs. Mix for 1 to 2 mins.
- Add the butter and mix, scrapping down the sides of the bowl.
- Mix in the flour mixture and add the vanilla extract. Pulse until the cake mixture is fully combined.
- Drop several dollops of the cake batter on the apricots, spreading it out carefully in the cake tin, without disturbing the apricot arrangement.
- Bake for 40-45 mins or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the centre of the cake. Don't worry if the top looks dark, it is not over-baked, just caramelised.
- Allow to cool for several minutes before running a knife around the sides of the tin to loosen the cake.
- After several more minutes of cooling, place a large serving plate over the top of the cake tin and flip it over onto your chosen serving plate.
- Remove the tin carefully as well as the baking paper.
- Heat the syrup in the microwave for 10-15 seconds and brush the apricots with it to give the cake a nice sheen.
- Serve the cake either warm or cold with freshly whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.
Notes
- Keeps for 3 days
- Suitable to freeze
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