I’ve been going nuts over a Midwest Living magazine this summer and you’ll see more recipes inspired from them in the coming days and weeks. This recipe, Orange Apricot Snack Cake, was inspired by their Vanilla Orange Snack Cake and is so much more than it sounds!
Orange Apricot Snack Cake
The Orange Apricot Snack Cake is gorgeous – just a bit of texture from the cornmeal and the top has a nice crispness from the sugar – and the apricots almost turn into a candy.
Seriously, those apricots are just about jewel-like. I did do just a bit of adapting – they used vanilla sugar, which has to be made a week ahead, and I upped the citrus in this cake.
Orange Apricot Snack Cake
Although Orange Apricot Snack Cake has a bit of sophistication, it also has a simplicity about it that smacks of down-home goodness. It’s something that your Grandma might make if she were from some far flung place and she’d serve it on glass plates over doilies.
Midwest Living really nailed it with this recipe. Easy and quick, I’ll be making this, and perhaps variations of this, using different fruit, over and over again.
Orange Apricot Snack Cake
Orange Apricot Snack Cake
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup yellow cornmeal
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3 egg yolks
- 1/3 cup buttermilk
- 1 tablespoon orange zest
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 1 cup Vanilla Sugar (recipe below) or 1 cup granulated sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4 small apricots, halved and pitted
- 2 heaping tablespoons granulated sugar
- Powdered sugar, optional
Preheat oven to 350 degrees . Grease bottom of a 9×2-inch round cake pan or spring form pan. Line bottom of pan with waxed paper or parchment paper; grease and lightly flour pan; set aside. I recommend the spring form pan because the cake will not have to be inverted; the apricots may have juice pooled in them.
In a small bowl, stir together flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt.
In a large bowl, beat butter and 1 cup sugar with an electric mixer on medium to high-speed until combined. Add egg yolks, buttermilk, zest and vanilla extract and mix until combined (it may appear slightly curdled). Add flour mixture, beating on low-speed until just combined.
Spread batter evenly in prepared pan. Arrange apricot halves cut side up on batter (without pressing down). Sprinkle with two heaping tablespoons sugar.
Bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool in pan for 15 minutes. If using a cake pan, place a rack over pan and carefully turn cake out of pan. Invert onto a serving platter. If using a spring form, run a knife around the edge, release and let cool before removing the parchment and moving to serving platter.
Dust with powdered sugar if desired. Serve warm or at room temperature.
| Nutrition Facts | |
|---|---|
| Servings 8.0 | |
| Amount Per Serving | |
| calories 307 | |
| % Daily Value * | |
| Total Fat 13 g | 20 % |
| Saturated Fat 8 g | 38 % |
| Monounsaturated Fat 1 g | |
| Polyunsaturated Fat 0 g | |
| Trans Fat 0 g | |
| Cholesterol 100 mg | 33 % |
| Sodium 185 mg | 8 % |
| Potassium 65 mg | 2 % |
| Total Carbohydrate 43 g | 14 % |
| Dietary Fiber 1 g | 5 % |
| Sugars 28 g | |
| Protein 3 g | 7 % |
| Vitamin A | 17 % |
| Vitamin C | 5 % |
| Calcium | 3 % |
| Iron | 2 |
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