Recently one of my readers asked for a new baked treat with apricots. And now, right in the height of apricot season, I'm happy to share a new recipe featuring these juicy and delicious fruits. Apricots pair beautifully with caramel, so for this cake I made a caramel layer — just as I did in my Apple Tarte Tatin and my Spiced Pear Caramel Cake — and I baked the cake itself as an upside-down cake. For the batter this time I used a classic pound cake base, but with a little sour cream added for extra tenderness and softness. The cake turned out absolutely delicious — light, soft, and fluffy, and the apricots in caramel complemented the wonderful cake batter beautifully with their tartness and aroma. My taste testers gave it two enthusiastic thumbs up — it didn't even last a full day at our house!)
Ingredients:
- 200 g flour
- 150 g sugar
- 100 g butter
- 50 g sour cream
- 3 eggs
- 1 tsp baking powder
- For the caramel:
- 600-800 g apricots
- 50 g butter
- 50 g sugar
- juice of half a lemon
- 0.5 tsp cinnamon
How to cook apricot tarte tatin
Cook over medium heat until the sugar turns a light golden brown (do not stir). Then carefully stir and continue cooking until all the sugar is a uniform brown color.
Reduce the heat to low and place the apricot halves cut side down in the pan, then pour in the lemon juice. The apricots will release liquid — cover and simmer over low heat until tender. My apricots were ripe but fairly firm, so I simmered them for 10 minutes; the exact time will depend entirely on your apricots and may be more or less. The apricots should be soft but still hold their shape and not fall apart.
My skillet isn't very large, so I swapped the apricot halves along the edges with the ones in the center partway through cooking to make sure they all softened evenly.
Add the flour mixed with the baking powder and beat just until the flour is incorporated — do not overmix.
Prepare your baking pan — mine is 26 cm in diameter. Transfer the apricots to the pan cut side down, then pour the caramel over them. If you have more caramel than needed, you don't have to use it all — I used about 2/3 of it, but there should still be a good amount of caramel in the pan.
Spoon the batter evenly over the apricots and gently smooth it out. If you can see the caramel around the edges, that's fine — it will all absorb into the batter as it bakes. Bake in an oven preheated to 180°C for 20–40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. If you're using a pan with low sides like I did, place a sheet of foil on the rack below — cakes with caramel can bubble over the edges and drip down.
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