Apricot yogurt cake

Whenever a guest is coming to visit us, there is one thing I try to prepare, it  is a cake. I can agree on having a take away for a dinner, we may need to do shopping in the morning to have anything for breakfast, but the cake is something I like to have as a welcome pack. There is something homely about it. It makes me feel better. I hope it makes my guests feel better.

So every time somebody visits us  I do that emotional dance when I try to decide what kind of cake should it be – fancy or simple. I think in 80% situations I pick simple as  the deadline is always tight and I try not to stress myself more than I need to (I do like to panic a bit). None of our guests has ever complained, so I guess my choices were wise 😉

Last week we were expecting Tomek’s aunt. I ran to a shop a day before to pick some fruits to make my simple cake slightly more interesting. Chocolate cakes don’t work for me in summer (unless it’s dark and gloomy), I feel obligated use fruits in my cakes in the summer. These apricots looked like tiny balls of sunshine, that we never get enough in Ireland….

As for the cake it’s as easy as possible. You don’t even need to use a mixer. If you ever baked muffins, you will know the drill – dry ingredients in one bowl, wet in other. Mix each, combine, bake and enjoy. I admit I used scale, but you can refer to the original recipe to find measures in cups if that’s simpler option for you, for me it was just far too dangerous and complicated. Yes, I think that using a kitchen scale makes your job easier. The cake is brilliant, simple, yet delicious, you can adapt the recipe to your needs, substitute apricots with whatever fruits you have.

So there was the cake, I was settled. We went to the airport and we welcomed Tomek’s aunt, than out of blue his mom showed up and then his cousin showed up. They were all equipped with blowouts, after all it was his 30^th birthday 😉  So we have now birthday full-house week. So please excuse me for not spending time in the blog world, I should be back next week. For now you can have a look at Instagram, there are some sneak-peaks of where we’ve been and what have done.

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Apricot yogurt cake

Adopted from Chocolate & Zucchini
For 23×23-cm cake pan

• 250g plain flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• a good pinch of salt
• 250ml plain unsweetened yogurt
• 2 eggs
• 160g caster sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla paste
• 80ml vegetable oil
• 1 tsp orange liqueur (for example Cointreau)
• 6-8 apricots, pitted and quartered (don’t peel it)
• orange or apricot jam for brushing (optional)

Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan.

Line a 23×23-cm cake pan with parchment paper.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl.

In a separate bowl beat the yogurt, eggs, sugar, vanilla, oil, and liquor.

Pour the liquid ingredients into the flour mixture and stir gently just until combined. Don’t overwork it.

Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan.

Arrange apricots at the top.

Bake in preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the cake is golden and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Brush the apricots with a little bit of jam to give them nice gloss.

I’ve added this little recipe to Lucy’s movement Cook Blog Share, that is about spreading some love to brilliant blogs that around us. Feel free to join us!

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