Upside-down Apricot Butter Bundt #BundtBakers

Baking an upside-down cake in a Bundt pan is not for the fainthearted. But with lots of butter in the caramel and in the batter, it can be done! 

This month the Bundt Bakers are celebrating stone fruit. Things like peaches, apricots and plums or cherries and nectarines, in fact anything with a hard stone or pit in the middle, so even avocados would qualify. This great theme was chosen by Felice of All That’s Left are the Crumbs but unfortunately, she was unable to host this month, so I’ve stepped in. We miss you, Felice, and are all wishing you well!

We can get beautiful apricots here in Dubai, but they aren’t the sweetest so I decided to use canned ones for the cake. If you have sweet fresh apricots, by all means, substitute. The cake batter is a simple buttery pound cake, spooned into the caramelized sugar Jamie Oliver uses for his apricot tarte tatin, which is one of my favorite desserts to make. Although I usually leave the pistachios off. Must share that one soon too.

Ingredients
For the cake:
1 pound or 450g unsalted butter, plus more for pan
1 pound or 450g sugar
5 eggs
3 cups or 375g all-purpose flour, plus more for pan
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup or 240ml milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the “upside down” caramelized apricots:
3 1/2 oz or 100g sugar
2 tablespoons water
5 tablespoons or 1/3 cup or 70g unsalted butter, diced
1 can (14 1/2 oz or 410g) apricots in syrup, well drained

Method
In a small skillet, cook your sugar and water over a low to medium heat until it starts to brown. Watch it carefully the whole time! You do not want this to burn, just to caramelize. When it gets a nice medium brown, take the skillet off the stove and add in the butter.

Stir vigorously but don’t splash yourself! That stuff is hot.

Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and butter and flour your Bundt pan thoroughly.

Mix your flour, salt and baking powder together in a bowl and set aside.

With a mixer, cream butter and sugar together in another bowl. Add the eggs to the creamed butter, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

First egg and fluffy butter creamed with sugar

By the time the last egg goes in, it may look a little curdled but don't that alarm you. Now add the dry ingredients alternately with milk, starting with the flour and ending with the flour, mixing well after each addition.

Mix in the vanilla extract.

Pour your caramelized sugar and butter mixture into the prepared Bundt pan.  If it has started to harden up, you can warm it again very gently - just until it will pour - but you don't want it too hot.

That's a lot of butter in there. No way this can stick! Just keep repeating that.

Gently lay the drained apricots, round side down, in the caramel.

Spoon the batter carefully into the pan, first on top of the apricots so they stay down and then all around them. Keep spooning the batter until it is all in the pan. If you pour, you risk dislodging the apricots.

Smooth out the top and bake for 65-75 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

If you are a thermometer-using type, according the King Arthur Flour website, the internal temperature should be about 200°F or 93°C when a pound cake is done.

It looks a bit funny around the edges because the caramel bubbled up as it baked.
You can still see a little caramel there on the right. It soaks into the cake as it starts to cool.

Cool on a wire rack for at least 10-15 minutes before turning out. I wouldn’t leave it any longer though because you don’t want the caramelized sugar to harden again and stick to the pan. There is no sound more beautiful to a Bundt baker than that gentle thud of a cake turning loose.

Enjoy!

Do you love baking with stone fruit? We’ve got a great bunch of recipes for you this month!

• All-American Chocolate Cherry Pie Cake from Lauren at So You Think You Can Cook
• Black Forest Bundt Cake with Cherry Ganache Topping from Teri at The Freshman Cook 
• Caramel Mango Bundt Cake from Bea at Secrets from My Apron
• Cherry Almond Ginger Bundt from Jane at Jane’s Adventures in Dinner 
• Cherry Carrot & Banana Bundt from Kelly at Passion Kneaded 
• Cherry Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake from Renee at Magnolia Days 
• Chocolate Avocado Bundt Cake from Terri at Love and Confections 
• Cinnamon Peach Bundt Cake from Bea and Mara at I Love Bundts 
• Peaches n Cream Melba Bundt Cake from Laura at Baking in Pyjamas 
• Peachy Bundt from Margaret at Tea and Scones 
• Plum, Chocolate and Orange Bundt Cake by Maria at Box of Stolen Socks 
• Roasted Cherry Kugelhopf with Cherry Bourbon Glaze by Tux from Brooklyn Homemaker
• Upside-down Apricot Butter Bundt from Stacy at Food Lust People Love

#BundtBakers is a group of Bundt loving bakers who get together once a month to bake Bundts with a common ingredient or theme.  Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on the BundtBakers home page.

We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

If you are a food blogger and would like to join us, just send me an email with your blog URL to foodlustpeoplelove @ gmail.com.