Whew – looks like we all made it through the 4th of July weekend! How was yours?! Mine was wonderfully simple, I hung out with a few close friends and just watched fireworks in my small little neighborhood.
I had Friday off, and it seemed like a lot of people did, but I took advantage of the day and mass baked for the blog. The nice thing about that was, I pretty much brought all my leftover blog food to my friend’s house for the 4th. It was almost like double duty – blog posts and my contribution to our backyard snack fest.
So we sat outside and snacked on these mini apricot cakes, this wonderful cornmeal zucchini bread (one of my all-time favs) and a blueberry crisps with a twist that will be up later this week.
They are light, not sweet with just a hint of coconut and tart squeeze of lime juice. And bubbles – who doesn’t love bubbles?!
Those drinks were the perfect complement to these mini apricot cakes – which are pretty light themselves and not all that sweet. They are almost like a biscuit with fresh apricots – a very Italian dessert if you ask me. It was the favorite at our 4th festivities. I think people do really appreciate a simple dessert made with fresh, local ingredients.
mini apricot cakes
- 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
- ⅓ cup sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon almond extract
- ⅓ cup milk
- 3 apricots, halved, pitted and cut into wedges
- 2 tablespoons raw sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and spray a 12-cup standard muffin pan with non-stick vegetable spray.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter and sugar, scraping down bowl as necessary, until light and fluffy. About 2 minutes.
- Add egg, lemon zest, vanilla, almond extract and beat until combined.
- With the mixer on low, add dry ingredients in 3 additions, alternating with milk in 2 additions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture.
- Divide the batter between the muffin cups (cups will be about ⅓ full) and smooth tops.
- Top with three apricot slices each, gently pressing into the mixture, and finishing with a sprinkle of raw sugar.
- Bake until cakes are golden and a toothpick is inserted into the middle and comes out clean, about 20-25 minutes.
- Transfer pan to a wire rack and let cool 5 minutes. Remove cakes and cool on rack until completely cool.
- Cakes can be made one day ahead and stored in an airtight container at room temperature.
Notes
This recipes was slightly adapted fromBon Appetit
