we’ve been lucky to have photographer sabra krock share two beautifully shot recipes with us so far (maple sour cream walnut muffins and artichoke casserole) and today we’re thrilled to have her back for a delicious seasonal recipe that’s perfect for weekend guests. i’ll let sabra take it from here, but i wanted to congratulate sabra on her new kids website and line of limited edition greeting cards (below). she’s offering a beautiful series of feather/egg photography cards and summer fruit photography. if you’re interested in picking up one of her sets just shoot sabra an email right here.
from sabra: i had originally thought about doing this recipe for the first post, but apricots have only just now hit the stores on the east coast. the recipe is (heavily) adapted from marcel desaulniers’ “oven-roasted plum cakes” in julia child’s baking cookbook, baking with julia (written by dorie greenspan). i must confess to being a bit of a cookbook junkie. i buy them now as much for the beautiful photography as for the recipes. i describe some of my current favorites in a recent post on my blog.
baking with julia is already more than ten years old but the recipes are as fresh and informative as ever. it is a great general baking reference book as well as a nice compilation of recipes from wonderful bakers such as nancy silverton and nick malgieri. one of my favorite food photographer teams, gentl and hyers, did the photos.
my recipe calls for baking the cakes in disposable tartlet cups (approximately 4 inches in diameter and ¾ inch high). The cups are just the right size to ensure that the pretty fruit pokes out of the top at the end.
CLICK HERE for the full recipe after the jump!
Apricot tea cakes
(makes approximately six cakes)
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
2 Tbs light brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp minced lemon zest
½ tsp pure vanilla extract
¾ cup all purpose flour
¼ cup almond meal
¾ tsp baking soda
¼ cup buttermilk
3 ripe apricots, halved and pitted
Sanding or sparkling sugar (for dusting the tops)
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
Using an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars at medium/medium-high speed until light and fluffy and sugar is dissolved. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add lemon zest and vanilla and beat until incorporated. Reduce mixer speed to low and add in flours and baking soda until just combined, taking care not to over-mix. Stir a few times with a rubber spatula, scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl, to ensure all ingredients are well combined.
Place six tartlet cups on a baking sheet and fill half way with batter. Press an apricot half, cut side up, into the center of the cup. Sprinkle batter and fruit with sanding sugar. Bake for 25 minutes or until tops are golden brown and batter is just set (springs back to the touch). Enjoy with tea!
25 Comments
Scrumptious! Beautiful photography.
Oooh, that looks wonderful!! Beautiful pictures, too. Reminds me of eating apricots fresh off of the trees we had in our yard when I was growing up.
these photos are making my mouth water!
Ohhh those gorgeous apricots popping off that perfect shade of blue! Totally inspired by this.
Gorgeous photography AND I want to eat the treats right now!!
I didn’t see what to do with the buttermilk in the instructions. Is that part of the creaming butter with sugars?
Beautiful photography…love the apricots in the bucket on the ladder! Great work!
What beautiful photographs! I, of course, love the vintage pieces she’s used to style the photos.
Gorgeous! I love the drop of water on the right peach in the above photo! Stunning
Little lovelies like these make me want to have a tea party!
Divine photography. Made me click to her site immediately.
Delicious. Every day should be Sunday so we can have brunch with the girls and eat these!
these are delicious looking. the photography is stellar…
Thanks for the link to the artichoke casserole – definitely have to try it out :)
The colors remind me of a Cezanne painting… and it’s making me hungry!
Inspires me to redo my room, beautiful!
where would one find these tartlet cups? ive scoured the internet but am not finding ones nearly as big as 4 inches in diameter or 3/4 inches high. thanks!
Thanks so much everyone for your comments – you are inspiring!
Andrea: great catch. The buttermilk is the last thing to be added and incorporated – a typo on my part. Lisa: I found mine at NY Cake and Baking – I’m sure they are available elsewhere too.
Thanks again!
Impressive. These are the types of photos I strive to take.
gorgeous photography!
No seriously! I cannot find better photography and better food than this!! this made my day!
The photograph had me – I could hardly wait to whip up a batch of my own and impress my sister family with ‘em. These were easy to make and (to my delight) looked just as pretty as those featured above. They taste like a cake version of a sugar cookie and I was hoping for something a little more complex I guess…they need some spice (ginger seems like an obvious pick…maybe some candied ginger on the top too?). One thing to note is that these need to be eaten pretty soon after they are made because the juice from the apricot continues to soak in after baking and makes the cake part increasingly soggy over the day.
GORGEOUS!!! food should look this beautiful.
Alright, I actually made these cakes this weekend for my Jane Austen Society Meeting. They were a big hit.
I too noticed the missing buttermilk, and due to no other option, I added it last. I did have a bit of toruble though. My apricots sank to the very bottom of the cake and made removing it from a metallic tart tin a bit harder.
Also, the ingredient list was quite pricy (mainly because I had so little on hand) but 8.99 a lb. for almond meal!!! Geez
What brand is your teapot? It’s absolutely adorable! And those cakes look so delicious =D
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