Friday, July 20, 2012

Fresh Black Velvet Apricot And Blueberry Cake

I adore apricots, and yet, its very difficult to find fresh apricot in Taiwan until one day I found this black velvet apricots in Costco. They look more like plums than apricots, but there is a hint of apricot in them. I literally took the available ingredients on my stock cabinet and see what I can do about this fruit and to figure out if I think the ingredients will come together. Went straight to the kitchen and started baking. I never tried this recipe before and I have to say, they were fantastic. Right out of the oven, the apricots it provides an authentic fruit flavor they were soft and the batter was fluffy, and just the right sweetness.
Ingredients:
1½ cups all purpose flour
6pcs fresh black velvet apricots
100g fresh blueberry
¾ cup caster sugar
3 organic eggs, beaten
2 squeeze lime juice + lime zest
¾ cup unsalted butter, softened
¼ tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp refined salt
1 tbsp vanilla extract
For The Caramel Glaze:
5 tbsp unsalted butter
½ cup muscavado sugar
3 tbsp champagne cognac
Preparation:
1. At first preheat oven to 180°C. Grease a 20cm non-stick round pan. Then peel the apricots, core and cut into halves, set aside.
2. Sift together the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda  into a mixing bowl. 
3. Add the sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla extract, lime zest and juice. Mix well until the batter is smooth.
4. Spoon the batter mixture into pan.
5. Arrange the fresh apricots then spread the blueberry over the top of batter and apricots.
6. Place in the preheated oven and bake  for 50 minutes or 1 hour until risen and skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
7. Remove from the oven, let it cool, then transfer carefully onto a serving plate or cake.
8. Meanwhile, put the sugar, butter and champagne cognac into heavy-bottom pan.
9. Heat gently until melted, then bring to a boil, stirring constantly until it turns to a deep golden caramel color, or until the mixture thickens.
10. Pour quickly into the cake, making sure to pour extra into the crevices around the apricots.
11. Its moist, delicious cake isn't that temptation! Trust me, it tastes way better than it looks.
12. Slice the cake to reveal apricots and oozing caramel. This doesn’t need any ice cream, though whipped cream would be a pretty.