A beautiful summer dessert, this cake has the gorgeous notes of almond paired with the fragrance and soft texture of fresh apricots. Add 1/2 teaspoon of rose water for an extra summery flavour. It’s gorgeously gluten and dairy-free, and generally completely delicious!
Ingredients:
- 150g or about 8 fresh apricots
- 200g ground almonds
- 50 grams fine polenta
- 1 tsp almond extract
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 150 g caster sugar
- 6 eggs
- 1 tsp rosewater (optional)
- 1 tbsp. sunflower oil for greasing the tin
- 200g flaked almonds
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease the sides of an 8-inch springform cake tin and line the bottom with baking paper.
- Add the ground almonds, polenta, baking powder, caster sugar, almond extract and eggs in a food processor and give a good long blitz to combine.
- Open the top of the processor, scrape down the batter and then scrape into the prepared tin and smooth with a spatula.
- Slice your apricots in half and squash them down into the cake batter. They will rise a little when baked so don’t worry if you’ve pushed them right down almost to the baking paper. Scatter the flaked almonds on top and then pop in the oven on a middle shelf.
- Bake for 40 minutes, although check after 30 minutes and if the top is going very brown, remove from the oven, cover it with foil and then pop it back in the oven to let the middle of the cake cook through. When it’s ready, the cake will be coming away from the edges of the tin.
- Remove the cake from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool. Once cooled, remove from the tin and place on a plate – then slice up and enjoy!