Apricot Upside Down Cake

This Apricot Upside Down Cake is warm, comforting, and exceptionally moist. Refined sugar free and featuring a dose of almond flour for additional flavour, this is one summer fruit dessert everyone will love.

Happy Friday! If you saw my Instagram post, you’ll know that a very important date passed this week – it was Naturally Sweet Kitchen’s first blogiversary! This little community is officially one year old.

I can’t believe how quickly time has flown by. It sounds cliche, but it really does seem like only yesterday I hit publish on these peanut butter cookies. Time is a funny thing, my friends. So to celebrate, we’re baking this moist and flavourful Apricot Upside Down Cake!

This post also marks the beginning of my Summer Fruit Desserts Month series! I’m setting you a challenge this month to celebrate, too. Don’t forget to visit the end of this post for details on how you can win a £50 (or $50, if you’re in the US) Amazon gift card!

I can’t wait!

What is upside down cake?

If you haven’t made an upside down cake before, it’s a dessert that you prepare and bake upside-down – usually in a frying pan or cast iron skillet – and then flip over to reveal a saucy, patterned top.

The top of the cake usually features fresh sliced fruit and a baked-on caramel topping. Examples of traditional versions of this cake include American pineapple upside down cake and French tart tatin.

We’re going a tad out of the box here and using fresh apricots instead of apples or pineapple, and our refined sugar free caramel topping is made from coconut sugar. We’ll be using honey to sweeten the cake itself and a touch of almond flour to add a bit of nuttiness and extra flavour. Almonds and apricots are so great together, I couldn’t resist!

How to pit an underripe stone fruit

To make this Apricot Upside Down Cake, you’re going to need some slightly underripe apricots. These are apricots that are still firm to the touch, so they do require a little more finesse to open and pit. Here’s how to do it the safe and easy way:

1. Slice along the seam of the fruit and twist open, if possible.
2. If it’s not separating, slice the fruit along the opposite seam to create four segments.
3. Gently pry at least two sections away from the pit. Stand the fruit on its small end and slice out the pit from the other sections vertically.
4. Cut the quarters into ½ cm slices.

We’re using underripe apricots in this recipe for two reasons. One, because they’re a bit firmer, the apricots retain most of their structure despite the 40-minute baking time. And two, the sharpness of the underripe fruit balances out the sweetness of the caramel and sponge.

Win a £50 Amazon gift card with the #SummerFruitDesserts Month Challenge – CLOSED

To celebrate the beginning of summer fruit season and get everyone eating a bit more seasonally, I’m hosting a month-long baking challenge this June! Here’s what’s going to happen:

Every Friday, I’ll be sharing a new recipe featuring a fresh summer fruit, for a total of four recipes in June.

To enter, you must bake one of the four recipes, take a picture of your bake, and share the photo on Instagram or Facebook tagging my account in the image or caption. You can do this for every recipe for a total of four entries!

I’ll be keeping track of the entries I’m tagged in, and one winner will be chosen at random and announced the first week of July on my Instagram. The giveaway is open to residents of the UK, EU, USA, and Canada (excluding Quebec). The prize will be 1 £50 GBP OR $50 USD Amazon e-gift card, depending on the winner’s preference. The giveaway ends on 30 June 2019 at 23:59 BST.

I hope you’re excited, because I cannot wait to see you bake this Apricot Upside Down Cake (and all the other summer fruit treats)!

Good luck and happy baking!

Looking for more fresh fruit dessert recipes?

• 15-Minute Apple Crisp
• White Chocolate Raspberry Ripple Cake
• Grapefruit & Thyme Mascarpone Tart
• Apple Chai Cake

5 from 1 vote

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Apricot Upside Down Cake

This refined sugar free Apricot Upside Down Cake is super moist and features fresh summer fruit and nutty almond flour.

Category Cake

Keyword upside down cake

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes

Total Time 1 hour

Serves 10

Author Amanda | Naturally Sweet Kitchen

Ingredients

• 125 g plain flour
• 125 g almond flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp fine sea salt
• 113 g unsalted butter divided
• 100 g coconut sugar
• 3-4 firm fresh apricots sliced*
• 100 g unpasteurised honey
• ½ tsp almond extract
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 2 eggs room temperature
• 200 ml buttermilk room temperature

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170ºC (325ºF).
2. Lightly grease a 26 cm (10 in) cast iron skillet, or other oven-proof frying pan, and place over a medium-low heat to warm up.
3. Sift the flour, almond flour, baking soda, and sea salt into a large bowl and whisk to combine. Set aside.
4. Melt half (56g) of the butter in the warm skillet until just bubbling. Remove from the heat and sprinkle over the coconut sugar. Place the sliced apricots in a circular pattern on top of the coconut sugar in a single layer. Set aside.
5. Melt the remainder of the butter in a small saucepan. Allow to cool slightly.

6. In a medium bowl, whisk together the honey, cooled melted butter, and extracts until well combined. Crack in the eggs, one at a time, and whisk together to incorporate each egg.

7. Slowly pour in the buttermilk while whisking.

8. Create a well in the dry ingredients and add the wet ingredients. Whisk just until the batter becomes smooth.

9. Gently pour the batter over the layered apricots and smooth out to the edges of the skillet. Bake the cake for 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted at the centre comes out clean. Keep an eye on the cake around the 35-minute mark. If it begins to brown too much at the edges, cover with a layer of foil to prevent burning.

10. Remove the cake from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes only. Run a knife around the edges to loosen the cake from the pan. Place a serving plate on top of the pan and carefully flip the pan upside-down so the skillet is on top of the plate. Tap the top of the pan a few times to help the cake fall onto the plate.
11. Remove the pan and serve the cake immediately with ice cream or double cream.

Notes

• *The apricots should be sliced medium-thick (a little less than ½ cm wide). This will help them retain their structure through the extended baking time.
• This cake is best served the day it is made, but it will keep refrigerated, sealed in an airtight container, for up to 2 days.