a cake for midsummer

a cake for midsummer

• 10 Nov 2024

It might not quite be mid summer here in Sydney but apricots have appeared in the fruit shop and raspberries are plentiful. I've had this Nigel Slater recipe for a Cake for Midsummer bookmarked for quite some time. This recipe uses peaches and blueberries but other versions I found online have used apricots and raspberries.

I topped the cake with fresh apricots and some frozen raspberries whilst for the batter I used some frozen apricots I found buried in the freezer. Using frozen fruit rather than fresh meant I had to add an extra 10 minutes to the bake time but the cake still came out nice and moist.

Here's the recipe for you which makes a 17cm cake. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C. If you'd like to make a larger version, please click the link above to the original recipe. 

A Cake for Midsummer adapted from a recipe by Nigel Slater 
Ingredients
4 apricots

1 tbs caster sugar
115g unsalted room temperature butter
125g caster sugar
2 tsp grated lemon rind
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
115g self-raising flour
Pinch salt
65g almond meal
40mls milk 
125g fresh or frozen raspberries
2 tbs flaked almonds

To serve

Icing sugar

Method
Grease, flour and line the base of a 17cm springform cake pan with baking paper. Preheat the oven to 175°C, conventional.

Halve and pit the apricots. Thinly slice 2 of the apricots and sprinkle with 1 tbs of caster sugar. You'll use these apricots to decorate the cake. Coarsely chop the remaining apricots and set to one side. 

Cream the butter, sugar, lemon rind and vanilla together in a stand mixer until pale and fluffy. Beat the eggs lightly, then add to the creamed butter and sugar a little at a time, pushing the mixture down the sides of the bowl occasionally with a rubber spatula. If there is any sign of curdling, stir in a tablespoon of the flour.

Sift the flour and salt together into a small bowl, then stir through the almond meal. With the mixer on a low speed, add the flour mixture in two or three separate batches. Add the milk (if needed) and once it is incorporated stop the mixer and gently fold  the chopped apricots and 1/3 of the raspberries through with a spatula or a wooden spoon.

Scrape the mixture into the cake pan, levelling the top, and then decoratively arrange the sliced apricots and the remaining raspberries over the batter, then sprinkle with the flaked almonds. Place the cake on the centre rack of the preheated 180°C conventional oven and bake for an hour and 10-20 minutes or until the top is golden brown. Test with a skewer and if it comes out relatively clean, then the cake is done. 

Leave the cake to cool for ten minutes or so in the tin, then run a thin spatula around the edge and slide it out onto a plate. Just before serving, dust with icing sugar.

I love Nigel's simple but delicious cake recipes and this one was a beauty.

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian