This cherry and apricot cake, made with a light and buttery sponge and served with a dollop of amaretto cream, bursts with summer fresh flavours!
There’s nothing quite like baking with fresh, seasonal fruit, like this Summer Berry Tart!
I don’t have the same love for baking that I do for cooking, although I love homemade bakes. Still, there is something irresistible about baking with sweet, fresh, in-season fruit!
This means that I can’t help but bake a cake when I come across fresh fruit in the summer. Which is how this lovely Cherry and Apricot Cake was born!
This combination came about because of an impulse purchase of cherries from a roadside stand and a delivery of beautiful delivery of apricots at my local supermarket. The amaretto cream was a natural addition to add a soothing and decadent creaminess to the whole experience!
Making the sponge
When the in-season fruit is finally here you don’t want to put it on a cake that is less than stellar. The sponge has to match the cherries’ sweet and juicy goodness and I’ve got just the recipe for you!
Of course, no one wants to spend their summer struggling in the kitchen. This is why the sponge recipe for this cake is simple to bring together.
Not that anyone will notice as the almonds and buttermilk or kefir make it moist with a beautiful nutty flavour! I love this sponge so much that I use it over and over again, such as this Summer Peach Cake with Red Berries!
What makes this sponge recipe so great is that it all comes together easily in a food processor, stand mixer or with a hand blender. Just add the ingredients in the order given in the recipe card and mix to combine!
The result is a sponge that is light, buttery rich and pillowy soft. The flavour, which comes from ground almonds, fresh lemon zest and pure vanilla, is just delightful.
Throw a handful of cherries and apricots on top, drizzle with honey and you’ve got yourself a jewel studded beauty!
You can make this same recipe with other fruit, depending on what is in season. Choose other stone fruit such as peaches, nectarines or plums to get similar results.
I served it with whipped cream spiked with Amaretto to highlight the almonds, which you can skip, but I wouldn’t if I were you!
What you need to make this cake
- The cake batter is made using basic ingredients that should be easy to find. I added ground almonds to add a nuttiness to the taste and buttermilk or kefir to add a beautiful moistness.
- A 9″ round springform baking pan with a lining of parchment paper to make releasing the sponge as easy as possible.
- Cherries and apricots, although these can be swapped for other fresh, in-season stone fruit.
More summer baking recipes
- Double Stacked Berry Pavlova
- Crumb Apricot Cheesecake
- Roasted Rhubarb Bakewell Tart
- Peach and Blackberry Tart
Ingredients
- 175 g/3/4 cup butter very soft, plus extra for greasing
- 200 g/1 ⅔ cup flour
- 2 ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- 150 g/1/4 cup ground almonds
- 200 g/1 cup sugar
- 142 ml/ ½ cup +2 tbsp kefir or buttermilk
- 3 large eggs beaten
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
- 225g/1 cup cherries halved and pitted
- 6 ripe apricots halved and stoned
- 2 tbsp honey
For the Amaretto Cream
- 250 ml/1 cup double cream/whipping cream
- 2 tbsp icing sugar
- 4 tbsp Amaretto
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180C/350F.
- Butter a 9″ round pan with butter and line with parchment paper.
- Combine all the dry ingredients in a food processor and pulse a few times to combine. Add the butter, kefir or buttermilk, eggs, vanilla and lemon zest and pulse briefly to combine until you have a homogenous thick batter.
- Scrape into your cake pan and arrange apricots and cherries on top, cut-side up. Drizzle with honey and bake for 60-70 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Let cool on a wire rack in a pan for 20 minutes.
- Run a knife around the sides of the cake to release it and remove from the pan. Let cool completely.
- Whip cream with icing sugar and Amaretto. Serve with Amaretto cream.
