Apricot Cream Cake Recipe

For years I have struggled celebrating birthdays. We have been on various lifestyle diets like dairy free, and later gluten free while we figured out what our bodies thrived on. We have settled on the Wise Traditions diet, and have been happily following their guidelines for a few years now. We have spent several years passing on cakes and honestly feeling a little deprived on our birthdays.

I just can’t get past the bad ingredients of store bought cakes. The frosting is nasty, the food dyes, preservatives, and artificial sugars. I tried making various homemade ones, but honestly most of them turned out weird. haha!

Last year I found an ebook, Cake Stand. Traditional, old school, farm fresh cake recipes. Intrigued, I bought it just in time to try a recipe for my daughter’s 5th birthday. Strawberry chamomile cake. It was delicious, the ingredients were simple, and it turned out amazing!

The cakes in the book are not overly sweet, and they all consist of the basic ingredients; eggs, butter, flour, milk, sugar with vegetables or fruit. So simple, and no questionable ingredients. It is the cake cook book that I have always been looking for!

For my birthday this year, I made the Apricot Cream Cake with French Buttercream Frosting. I’m so lucky that my birthday coincides with the ripening of my favorite fruit, peaches/apricots!

Better yet? Quinn, from Reformation Acres, allowed me to share this exclusive Apricot Cream Cake recipe from her book with you!

Note: I left Quinn’s wonderful recipe as written. Everywhere where apricot is written, I used peaches. Apricots and peaches are close enough, so I just subbed them.

Apricot Cream Cake

Ingredients

2 cups heavy cream

4 eggs whisked

1 Tablespoon vanilla

1 1/2 cups sugar

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 Tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

5 apricots for garnish (I used 3 peaches)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Grease 3-9″ cake pans with soft butter and then dust them with flour.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the cream with a whisk attachment for several minutes until it is whipped cream.

Whisk the eggs and vanilla together in a small bowl and then add them to the whipped cream until the mixture is foamy.

Switch to the paddle attachment, add the sugar, and continue to mix them together, scraping the sides when necessary.

Divide the batter among the pans and bake the cakes for 20-25 minutes until they spring back when lightly pressed.

Transfer them to a cooling rack for 10 minutes and then invert them before allowing them to completely cool.

Prepare the Apricot Jam & the Apricot French Buttercream (recipe below). Spread the buttercream over the top of 2 layers and then freeze them for about 15 minutes.

Spread the apricot jam over the frosting of 1 layer, stack the 2nd layer, spread it with jam, and then stack the top layer.

Frost the outside and top of the cake with the rest of the buttercream and garnish the cake with peeled apricot slices.

Apricot French Buttercream

1 1/2 cups sugar

6 egg whites, room temperature

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

2 cups butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla

3/4 cup apricot puree

Measure the sugar, egg whites, and cream of tartar into a large bowl set over a small saucepan full of hot water.

Bring the water to a boil and heat the egg whites, whisking them until they reach 160 degrees.

Transfer the mixture to the stand mixer bowl and whip it until the egg whites reach stiff peaks and have cooled down.

Continue to whisk the egg whites while adding 1 tablespoon of butter at a time until it has all been fully incorporated, scraping the sides as necessary.

Blend in the vanilla and apricot puree.

Cake Stand

After you try this recipe go look at Cake Stand. Celebrate your birthday with your favorite guilt free cake! With her book we have been celebrating Birthdays again, like we remember doing before our healthy lifestyle change (without the sugar crash!).