I say I’m not much of a baker but the fruit selection has been so good in New York lately that I’m feeling inspired to at least try a few things. This week I bought a whole bunch of apricots, thinking I’d try to make an apricot upside down cake. Pineapple upside down cake is one of my few favorite desserts and it seemed like apricots should work well too. I did an online search and, as usual, was reminded that I’m a home cook and not an innovative chef. This is not a terribly original idea. There were plenty of recipes out there and many sounded very good. But when I remembered seeing a lot of cakes in one of my grandmothers’ recipe books I decided I’d give Gramz (her spelling) a shot.
I have no idea where she got the recipe. She was diligent about crediting recipes in her notebooks, a name in the upper right hand corner of most hand-written pages. But this one had no attribution and she passed away in 1990 so she gets the credit until I hear otherwise.
The cake sounded a little complicated, especially for a novice like me but it came together quickly and turned out perfect despite the fact that I had to substitute all-purpose flour for the called-for cake flour. It looks a little like an angel food cake on the top (eventual bottom) but is much more dense and holds up well even with all the liquid from the apricots. I’m pretty sure this is my first scratch cake and it turned out so well I may get into this baking thing yet.
