Apricot and Ricotta Cake

A lovely moist, smooth and fruity cake that goes well with coffee. Yesterday we had my relatives from out of town over for a brief visit, so this was a fairly quick and easy cake to throw together just before they arrived. I have been eager to bake something with apricots for a long time now (having that lonely tin of apricots in the store cupboard) and the visit was a great reason to do so. Looking for inspiration, I came across this particular recipe here.
I like baking wholesome stuff a lot of the time, so I amended this a little by swapping some of the plain flour for wholegrain and I substituted the white sugar with cane sugar. The end result was a slightly darker cake than the original one.

Apricot and Ricotta Cake



250grams ricotta
70grams butter, softened
2dl cane sugar
1,5dl plain flour
1dl wholegrain flour
1,5tsp baking powder
2tsp vanilla sugar
2 eggs
1dl orange juice
200grams apricots (fresh or tinned)

icing sugar for dusting

1. Preheat the oven to 175C and line a 20cm springform cake tin with some baking parchment.
2. Beat the soft butter and ricotta cheese together. Mix the sugar, vanilla sugar, flour and baking powder together in a separate bowl. Lightly whisk the two eggs with the orange juice. Continue by adding some of the flour mix into the butter and ricotta, alternately with the eggs and orange juice. Once all ingredients are added give the batter a good thorough mix with a spatula.
3. Pour the cake batter into the prepared tin and top with sliced or diced apricots.
4. Bake for 35-40 minutes. To keep the cake from browning, it can be covered with some foil. I didn't, but hey..whatever tickles your fancy!:)
5. Leave the cake to cool in its tin for a bit, then transfer it onto a serving dish and dust with some icing sugar.

I can imagine this cake tasting even better the next day...unfortunately there was none left to know for sure! I suppose that's a sign of a good cake!

Enjoy!