Apricot Cake

This Apricot Cake is truly delicious, like a fruity coffee cake. Our secret ingredient in this recipe is cottage cheese, surprising right? This fruit dessert is like a cobbler meets a cake meets a crumble—it truly has it all!

With small pockets of sweet-tart, melt-in-your-mouth apricots, and dollops of brown sugar crumble, this Apricot Cake is unique and absolutely scrumptious. Aside from the fruit, this cake gets its flavor from browned butter, a hint of cardamom and both vanilla and almond extract. 

Now we love adding fresh apricots into this dessert when they’re in season. They’re just sweet enough to make this like a fruity coffee cake. But we’re happy to also tell you, you can substitute plums or nectarines as well and it’s just as delicious!

The inspiration behind this dessert was actually a ricotta cake. We just decided to swap the ricotta for cottage cheese and it’s truly amazing. It’s a quick and easy cake that comes together with a couple bowls, a whisk, and spoon—no special equipment needed.

The cottage cheese gives the cake body and structure without making it “cheesy.” The small curds of cottage cheese simply melt into the batter and give it a lovely creaminess.

Ingredients

Aside from a few staple ingredients like butter, sugar (light brown and white), flour, baking powder and salt, here’s what you’ll need:

• Cottage Cheese: use whole milk cottage cheese.
• Sliced Almonds: added to the crumble topping. You can use any nut you like—pecans, walnuts, pistachios and pepitas (for a nut-free version) would all be delicious. 
• Cardamom: this is optional but just a tiny dash of cardamom enhances the flavor of the apricots. It almost goes unnoticed—which is the point. 
• Eggs: you’ll need three large eggs. It’s important to use eggs labeled as “large.” A large egg, out of the shell, should weigh 50 grams. 
• Extracts: pure vanilla and almond extract add depth of flavor and give this cake a lovely aroma. The almond extract is added to enhance the flavor of the apricots. 
• Apricots: one pound of fresh apricots are needed for this recipe, which translates to about 8 or 9 apricots. The more ripe they are the more flavor and sweetness they add to the cake. 

How to Make Apricot Cake

For the Streusel:

1. In a small bowl, use your fingers to mash together the softened butter, brown sugar, flour and salt. Chill in the refrigerator until ready to use.

Brown the Butter:

1. Brown a stick of butter in a skillet until lightly golden brown and fragrant. Once browned, pour the butter into a heatproof bowl and allow to cool while you prep the other ingredients.

Make the Cake:

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt; set aside until ready to use. 
2. In a large bowl, vigorously whisk together the eggs, cottage cheese, sugar, vanilla and almond extract. The mixture should be pale in color with a layer of foam on top—this should take a minute of whisking to achieve.
3. Add the flour mixture to the cottage cheese mixture and mix just until combined and a few pockets of dry flour remain. Fold in all but ¾ cup of the apricots followed by the browned butter. 
4. Scrape the batter into a 9-inch round cake pan or springform pan. Sprinkle reserved apricots over top in an even layer then pinch the streusel into dollops and sprinkle over batter.
5. Bake the cake until it’s golden brown, doesn’t jiggle in the center when gently shimmied, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. This will take about an hour, though we recommend you check it at 55 minutes. Depending on your oven, this can take anywhere from 55 minutes to 70 minutes.

Variations

• Try cherries instead of apricots. We tested this cake with frozen pitted bing cherries, and while it was delicious, we didn’t like it as much as fresh apricots. If you do try this with frozen cherries, do not thaw them prior to baking. 
• Not all stone fruit is created equal. We haven’t tested this with peaches, but we worry they will be too juicy for this cake. They may weigh down the batter with their extra moisture. If you try it, let us know! 
• Use plums and nectarines instead of apricots. They should work just as well as fresh apricots here! 
• Play around with different extracts, spices and seasonings. Orange extract would be a fun addition to the batter. A dash of cinnamon and nutmeg would be delicious in the streusel.
• Use different nuts in the streusel, such as pecans, walnuts or pistachios. And to make this nut-free, use sunflower seeds or pepitas. 
• Add some strawberry for a fun flavor. If you like our Strawberry Pound Cake, stir some of the cooked strawberry mixture into the batter.

Serving Suggestions

I like this apricot cake best when served slightly warm with a dollop or two of lightly sweetened cooled whipped cream. Between the cool whipped cream and the warm cake, it just comes together beautifully. 

A scoop of vanilla ice cream is also a great pairing. 

Because this cake is so versatile, it can also be served as a coffee cake with brunch. We recommend still serving it slightly warm but offering a dollop of yogurt and berries as an optional topping. 

Storage Instructions

This cake can be stored tightly wrapped in foil at room temperature for up to 2 days. For longer storage, store the tightly wrapped cake in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.

We have not tested storing this cake in the freezer, but if you attempt to, we recommend wrapping it in plastic wrap followed by foil before freezing.

FAQs

More Easy Cake Recipes

• Strawberry Pound Cake
• Hazelnut Cake with Chocolate
• Sweet Potato Cake
• Orange Olive Oil Cake