Servings: 8 – 10 Time: 1 hr 20 min + cooling Difficulty: Easy
This is a chunky, no-nonsense cake that’s packed with flavour and has a great texture
Credit: This recipe was adapted from a recipe by Christine France in her excellent book “1 Mix, 100 Cakes”
Ingredients
- Oil or melted butter for greasing
- 250g/9 oz plain white flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 175g/6 oz unsalted butter, softened
- 175g/6 oz golden caster sugar
- 3 eggs, beaten
- 1 tsp almond extract
- 2 tbsp orange juice
- 100g walnuts, broken into smallish pieces*
- 150g dried apricots, chopped*
- 3 tbsp apricot jam – 1 tbsp lemon juice
Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees C (fan oven 140)/Gas mark 4. Grease and line a 1.2 litre/2 pint loaf tin.
2. Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl and add the butter, sugar eggs and almond extract. Beat well to obtain a smooth mixture. Mix in the orange juice, walnuts and apricots.
3. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and smooth the surface.
4. Bake in preheated oven for about 60 minutes or until well risen and pulling away from the sides of the tin.
5. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to fully cool.
6. Warm the apricot jam in a saucepan with the lemon juice and brush it over the cake top.
N.B. *You may wish to retain some of the walnuts or apricots to add as decoration when you glaze the cooled cake. Or you could put them on top of the cake prior to baking. However, they burn easily so be prepared to cover the cake with foil.
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