Apricot sour cream cake

My Mum is down from "up North" to stay with me this week.  It has been rather a novelty to have someone to stay, so I have been enjoying it.  The weather in Melbourne has also smiled on us, as for the most part, we have enjoyed sunny, albeit cool, weather this week.

Mum bought June edition of The Australian Womens Weekly to read at night.  Julie Goodwin, the winner of the first season of Australian Masterchef, has a regular cooking feature in the magazine.  One of Julie's recipes this month, a recipe for Apricot Sour Cream Cake, caught Mum's eye, so of course I had to make it for her.

The cake contains tinned apricots, so it doesn't matter that we are in the depths of winter and apricots are out of season.  In the cake batter, sour cream is added instead of milk to give the cake lightness and added tang.  I think this cake would be good fresh out of the oven with custard, but cold the next day, it was perfect.

Julie frosts her cake with sour cream and white chocolate frosting; I skipped this, but it sounds delicious, so I have included it.

To make this cake, you will need:

125g butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 1/3 cups sour cream
400g can apricot halves, drained and chopped
2 1/4cups self-raising flour (or add 4 teaspoons baking powder to the same quantity of plain flour)
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 cup white chocolate bits

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius.  Grease a 25cm bundt pan and set aside.

Beat the butter, sugar and vanilla together in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment until light and creamy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time.

Using a rubber spatula, fold in 1 cup of the sour cream and the chopped apricots, then fold in the sifted flour and bicarbonate of soda.  

Spread the batter evenly in the bundt pan, and bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes or until cooked through.  Remove the cake from the oven and turn out onto a wire rack to cool.

Combine the remaining 1/4 cup sour cream and white chocolate bits in a microwave safe bowl, and microwave on high for 1 minute or until melted, stirring half way through the melting time.  Allow the mixture to cool slightly and thicken, then drizzle over the cooled cake.