Gluten free. Simple to make.
Well after the success of my experimental Green Apricot Relish, it is time to make another recipe that uses a lot of green apricots! If you didn’t get a chance to read about my Green Apricot Relish recipe (you can find it here) I couldn’t find many recipes online that used a lot of green apricots, so fiddled around making recipes that would use a lot of apricots. Interestingly, after the cake had finished baking, the sour unripe apricots tasted much more like ripe apricots 🙂 ! But unlike using ripe apricots, they held their shape and their flesh was firmer in the cake. I really loved how this cake turned out, tart and slightly sweet, served with cream it was moist and a hit with the whole family.
Jump to Recipe
The exhaustion of hosting Christmas has faded and with the extra energy I once again found myself drawn to pottering in the kitchen. While my baby daughter napped and the boys had quiet time, I sat gazing out the large windows that over look our back garden. The bees buzzed in the flowers as the Summer sun shone, whilst a warm gentle breeze moved up the river valley and across our large timber deck, the tree leaves dancing a slow and gentle waltz on this balmy afternoon. As usual at moments like these I began to think about what I could cook that would use a lot of produce from the garden…. As the children were home on school holidays, I always like to have baked goods on hand so that a homemade snack is on hand when they inevitably become ravenously hungry (seemingly 3 minutes after they last ate 😊 !).
As the apricots were still not quite ripe, and green, unripe apricots continued to fall off the tree, I thought I would make a variation on my gluten free, steamed raspberry and lemon bunt cake, and make an Apricot & Almond tea cake, which I would also make gluten free by using rice flour.
This cake is soooo super easy to make, you don’t have to worry about over beating the mixture, and because it doesn’t contain gluten, there are no wheat fibers to over stretch that would otherwise make your cake ‘peak’ and crack. After melting the butter I add all the remaining ingredients except the fruit, give it a good mix and pour into a lined cake tin. Then carefully nestle whatever fruit I’m using, in this case apricot halves, into the top of the cake and bake. That’s it. So. Easy.
Until next time beautiful friend.
Enjoy xx!
Green Apricot & Lemon Tea Cake
Equipment
- 1 bowl (or saucepan if you’re melting your butter and sugar in a pot)
- 1 mixing spoon
- 1 citrus zester
- 1 citrus reamer (or just squeeze the lemon halves using your hands)
- 1 cup measure
- 1 teaspoon measure
Ingredients
- ½ cup of lemon juice
- Zest of 2 lemons
- 200 grams of butter
- 1 cup of powdered sugar
- 1 cup of almond meal ground almonds
- 1 cup of glutenous rice flour
- 2 teaspoons of baking powder
- 2 teaspoons of good quality vanilla extract or vanilla paste, I love using Queens Organic vanilla bean paste
- 3 large eggs
- 500 g not quite ripe apricots halved with the seed removed you can of course also use ripe apricots 😊!
Instructions
- Melt butter and sugar (I use the microwave – you can do this in a pot on the stove)
- Once the butter has melted, stir in the sugar, almond meal, lemon juice and lemon rind.
- Let the mixture cool before adding the glutenous rice flour and baking powder and eggs, mix thoroughly. If you don’t let the mixture cool down the baking powder will begin reacting (rising) prematurely and by the time the cake is supposed to rise in when it cooks it might not and you may end up with a flat dense cake.
- Line a cake tin with parchment paper
- Pour the cake batter into a 20cm cake tin lined with parchment paper
- Place the hulled half apricots evenly on top of the uncooked cake batter
- Place the filled cake in the oven and bake for 35 to 45 minutes. Test the cake for ‘doneness’ by inserting a skewer. If the skewer comes out clean, the cake is cooked.
Notes
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