Apricot Sour Cream Cake - Happy Birthday Claire!

It was Claire's birthday at work this week, so I got to make another cake that I have never made before. After toying with a few of Dorie's, I came across a fab photo of what was called "Campton Place Coffee Cake" in Sherry Yard's Desserts by the Yard. The striking thing about this cake was all of its wonderful layers, so I have posted my photographs in reverse order so that you too can admire all the layered charms of this cake. The slice in the photograph was the very last piece - because boy, is this cake good! It smells heavenly - I had to restrain myself from sampling it before it got to work. It has a vanilla and sugar and cinnamon smell, even after cooling, that just carries you away. The original contains fresh sliced peaches - as peaches are not in season here, and I had tinned pie apricots left over from my Danish braids, I used those instead.

To make this cake, you will need:

Cake

3 cups plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
175g butter
1 1/4 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 cups sour cream (I used the light version with no problems)

Filling

1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1/4 cup flaked almonds
1 tin pie apricots or peaches (or roughly 4 small peaches, sliced)

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius and spray a bundt pan with cooking oil.

Sift the dry ingredients for the cake together in a bowl and reserve.

Cream the butter and sugar for the cake, then beat in the eggs, one at a time. Add the sour cream and dry sifted cake ingredients in 3 alternating batches with your mixer on low speed or by hand. Set aside.

Mix all of the filling ingredients except the fruit together in another bowl.

Put one third of the batter into the base of the prepared bundt tin, spread out evenly, and cover with 1/4 cup of the dry filling mixture and one third of the fruit.

Cover with another layer of cake batter (roughly half of what is left), then after spreading it out evenly, sprinkle over another 1/4 cup of the dry filling and another third of the fruit. Repeat the batter and filling layers once more, reserving a little of the cake batter to finally cover the last layer of fruit with. (I didn't have quite enough to do this properly, although it ultimately didn't matter much.)

Bake the cake in your preheated oven for 35 minutes, then rotate the tin 180 degrees and bake for another 20-25 minutes. Allow the cake to cool in the tin on a wire rack for about 30 minutes before inverting onto the wire rack to cool completely.

I glazed my cake with lemon glaze to make it look a little more festive and birthday-like, but this is completely unnecessary.

From my rave above, you will have gathered that I loved this cake - I love how it looked, I love how it smelled (and I have smelled a lot of cakes baking in my time!!) and I love how it tasted - rich and fruity and moist - in fact, devine!!

Happy birthday Claire!