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Apricot Crumble Cake
With apricots in season at the moment, the best way to enjoy them is to simply eat them as they are when they are juicy and ripe.
But if, like me, you have a tendency to buy too many apricots at a time and the fruits ripen before you have had a chance to eat them at their best, a small batch of apricot jam is usually a good way to use up excess (and over-ripe) apricots.
Another option is to make an apricot cake.
Crumble Cake
This crumble cake is a favourite in our home, and the recipe is adapted from Everyday by Bill Granger, one of my favourite Australian cookbook authors.
This crumble cake is light and tender, and it is scented throughout with cinnamon for warmth and comfort.
The crumble topping is a very simple one, also heady with cinnamon, which provides a nice crunch and sweetness to the cake.
It is the perfect cake to make if you have some over-ripe apricots, but it also works just as well with ripe, but firm, apricots.
You can serve this apricot cake warm from the oven, but it tastes just as delicious at breakfast the next day.
Variations
This Apricot Crumble Cake happens to be a very versatile recipe, one which I often use with different fruits, depending on what is in season.
I particularly love this cake with red plums which tastes so comforting when served warm with a vanilla custard on the side.
But any stone fruit can be substituted in this cake, such as peaches and even cherries. In fact, a Cherry Crumble Cake is one of my favourite cakes when cherries are in season, as it happens to be a great way of using over-ripe cherries which are a bit past their prime for eating.
Using Over-Ripe Fruit
I actually made this Apricot Crumble Cake today because, after arriving home from the farmers’ market with my basket over-loaden with fruits and vegetables, I made the disappointing discovery that my apricots had not survived the trip. It appears that the apricots were fully ripe when I had bought them (which is often the case when shopping at the farmers’ markets), and most had burst or were crushed during my short walk home.
So I immediately set about making this Apricot Crumble Cake, which is the perfect cake to make whenever you have any over-ripe fruit.
It is also a great recipe for using canned fruit, and I have tried it successfully with canned pear halves as a last minute dessert.
And it seems that, no matter the type of fruit I use in this cake, the cake is almost always demolished in one sitting with barely a crumb leftover.
I might need to play around with the quantities to make it a bigger cake next time!
How to Make Crumble Cake
Apricot Crumble Cake
Ingredients
For the apricot cake
- 140 g (1 cup) plain flour , (all-purpose flour)
- 10 g (2 teaspoons) baking powder
- 50 g (¼ cup) caster sugar , (superfine sugar)
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 egg
- 45 ml (3 tablespoons) milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 85 g (¾ stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
- 5-7 ripe apricots
For the crumble
- 40 g (¼ cup) plain flour, (all-purpose flour)
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 35 g (3 tablespoons) caster sugar, (superfine sugar)
- 35 g (2 ½ tablespoons) unsalted butter, cold and diced
Instructions
To Make the Apricot Cake
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F (without fan).
- Grease and line the base of a 20 cm (8 inch) round springform cake pan.
- Make the apricot cake by placing the flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon and sugar into a large bowl.
- In a large jug or mixing bowl, whisk together the egg, milk, vanilla and melted butter.
- Gently mix the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients until everything is incorporated.
- Spoon the mixture into the cake pan.
- Halve the apricots and remove the seeds.
- Arrange the apricots, cut-side facing up, on top of the batter, and gently press them into the batter.
To Make the Crumble Topping
- Measure the ingredients into a large bowl.
- Rub the butter into the other ingredients with your fingertips until you have a mixture resembling wet sand. Alternatively, use a pastry blender.
To Bake the Cake
- Sprinkle the crumble topping over the apricots.
- Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until the crumble is lightly golden and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.
- Leave the cake to cool in the pan on a wire rack for about 10 minutes before serving warm or transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Kitchen Notes
- VARIATIONS
You can substitute the fresh apricots for other seasonal fruits, such as:
* Plums, halved and stoned
* Peaches, halved and stoned
* Cherries, stoned
* Apples, thinly sliced
* Mixed berries
* Tinned pear halves - OVEN TEMPERATURES
All recipes on this website state temperatures for a regular oven (i.e. a conventional oven without fan). If you have a convection oven with a fan, please consult the manufacturer’s handbook on how to adjust the temperature and baking time accordingly. - CONVERSIONS
To convert from cups to grams, and vice-versa, please see this handy Conversion Chart for Basic Ingredients.
Did you make this recipe?
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This recipe was first posted on 7 June 2016. It has been updated with new photos and more comprehensive recipe notes.
I definitely need to bake more with apricots! Especially with cake recipes like this out there!
Thanks, Katrina! It’s one of my favourite cakes to make when apricots are in season 🙂
I am dying to try this! I made an apricot tart over the weekend that was a total bust, so I am determined to start over and make something with apricots that tastes great.
Oh dear! What happened? I made a different crumble cake yesterday where the crumble disappeared into the cake … it had never happened to me before but I blame it on the recipe! 😉 Hope you will enjoy this recipe!
This is beautiful! I love doing crumbles because of the, well, crumble topping! :p I also love using stone fruit in a tarte or cake tatin. Thanks for sharing this lovely recipe <3
Me too! I can never go past a crumble cake – they are just so comforting 🙂
Oh, yes with red plums must be great too!! Do you remember that recipe (I think it was Ottolenghi) you made with crumble and mascarpone (at least when I made your recipe I used mascarpone). It was soooo delicious….
Cinnamon is not optional!! 😛
Have a nice end of weeken Thanh!!!!
My husband would say the same … cinnamon is never optional! 😉 I make the Ottolenghi cheesecake recipe quite frequently, especially when we have guests over. The crumble is soooo delicious!
This is beautiful! So easy to get fruits in cake wrong (hellooooo soggy slices) but you’ve clearly nailed it!
Thank you! No soggy bottoms in the cake 😉 This is one of my favourite cake recipes for using fruit.
By far this is the best recipe I’ve had and I’ve made it three times already. The only flaw the recipe has is the measurments, which are sort of confusing.They are sometimes oz/grams and sometimes cup. I wish you were using cups specially for flour and sugare which are more messy rather than oz and grams. Every time I want to make, I’ve to measure them by kitchen scale and feel it is hassel.
Hi Rubina,
Many thanks for your feedback. I’ve just looked at the recipe and I can see how the measurements can be confusing. So sorry! I will update it asap. But I’m glad to hear that you have enjoyed this recipe 🙂 I make it quite often when apricots are in season, and then I use other fruits at other times of the year – it’s such a versatile recipe. I’ll send you an email once I get a chance to update the recipe.
I’ve made this recipe several times and using different fruits, and it turns out perfectly each time. I tried it first with apricots but make it more often with apples from our garden. Thanks so much for this recipe!
I was given some apricots, I tried this recipe to use them up, what a treat it turned out to be, very easy to make and delicious! Thank you for the recipe.
So glad you enjoyed this recipe! This is definitely a great cake to use up lots of fresh apricots, and it works well with other stone fruits too 🙂
Do you think this would freeze well?
Hi Wendy,
Sorry, I don’t have much experience with freezing cakes. I would say no, only because the apricots might make the cake soggy upon defrosting. Hope this helps!
Great outcome, thanks for a detailed recipe (including gramd and cms, so much quicker and accurate). Recipe saved. 🙂
A moderate success. Took much longer to bake than in recipe – an hour and ten minutes rather than 35-40 – but came out of loose-botomed tin cleanly. I would make a version of this again but subsittute a Victoria sponge for the base as I found this one dense. I omitted the cinammon because it’s a spice I don’t like but wish I’d used almond extract in its place. I added ground almonds to the crumble mix and sprinkled flaked almonds on the top. There was a full layer of apricots but i would have liked more so I added raspberries when serving.
Beautiful cake! A great way to use up really ripe or bruised apricots and the cake is tender and soft. I served the cake warm and it disappeared instantly! Will definitely be making this cake again this summer.
I love the concept & taste of this cake however is it just me or did it make the tiniest cake ever? Just one cup of flour and 1/4 cup sugar meant it hardly filled the base of a cake tin?
I make this apricot cake every year. It is so simple and just tastes divine.
Just a quick question. Can it be frozen after baking? Does it become soggy when thawed?
Hello,
My guess is that the apricots will not thaw well and you might have a soggy cake. However, I have not tried to freeze this cake before.