Apricot Cake

Cake Anger.

Almost every Wednesday without fail I get it. Or rather it mounts from somewhere behind by stomach, seeps from my back-bone, and leaves me sitting at the computer with my knuckles clenched to white screaming (in my head) "WHAATTT THE HELL DO I WANT TO COOOOKKK?!!!"

That is the eternal question. Normally I have some sort of inspiration, but that inspiration is generally hampered by various problems- No muffin tin, no spring-form tin, no rolling pin, no brown sugar, no pie dish, no two cake tins alike to make layer cake and on and on and on.

I'll admit it, I need my mothers kitchen.

I get stares at the supermarket because I always buy at least 1kg of butter-but 250g doesn't even cover a bland cake, let alone a me-cake!

Mum's cupboard is mecca for cooks, and a nightmare for neat-freaks and use-by-date nazis- it could very well have Narnia behind it, but nobody would ever get close enough to the back of it to find out. Ditto for the fridge. BUT by the same token, I can't remember a time when I wanted to cook something and I had to go shopping first, or didn't have the equipment. Just the thought of returning to it in 2 months now gives me shivers! Tahini, Mi-Goreng, nuts from the South Melbourne Market, and in the fridge endless ice-cream containers of leftovers.... Bliss, Glee, they know my name.

ANYWAY rant/food wet-dream over. Time to recipe (yes I insist recipe is a verb). SO this is cake is the result of having practically nothing, and being so damn frustrated that I gave up real recipes and made for the kitchen. Results were reaaaally good, the texture of the cake is gorgeously light.

Ingredients-

2 cups of flour

50 grams of almond meal

1 1/4 teaspoons of baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1 cup of cane sugar

115g of butter

2 eggs

1 cup of plain yoghurt ( I used 0%)

1/3 cup of milk

3/4 cup of dried apricots (soaked until soft, then chopped into quarters)

1/2 teaspoon of orange zest

1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla essence

1 teaspoon of orange essence

sprinkle of nutmeg

Method-

Preheat the oven to 180°c, then butter and line a cake tin.

Beat the butter and sugar until fluffy and creamy, then add one egg at a time.

Add half of the yoghurt then half of the flour and stir until combined. Repeat.

Add in the milk, the essences and zest, then stir in the almond meal.

Finally, stir in the chopped apricots.

Pour into the tin and bake for around 40 minutes.

Leave to cool, then ice with apricot jam or leave it plain if you'd like it as a breakfast cake.