Little bit of heaven...

Again the weather is so nice, and I wanted to capture the nostalgia of foreign holidays in my baking today so I went for a greek inspired recipe, something suited to eating with a nice cup of coffee under this beautiful sky! I'm not the biggest fan of the apricot but they capture greek and turkish cuisine so well, I just had to use them! The nicest dessert I ever had was eaten beside the sea in Kefallonia, it was a sponge dripping with honey and covered in apricots, raisins and yoghurt... divine...

Apricot and Honey cake

you'll need

• 180g soft butter
• 3 eggs
• 225g self-raising flour
• 100g ground almond
• 250ml milk
• 125ml honey
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 10 ripe apricots, skinned and mashed and dried with paper.

Method

Beat your butter with an electic mixer until its fluffy and pale and then beat in your eggs. Don't worry if it curdles! Stir in some flour, some almond, some milk and some honey, bit by bit, one after the other until combined.   Add the cinnamon and the mashed apricot.  

Pour into a greased and lined tin, I use a flower silicon mold.  Bake at 180c for about 30-40 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean, don't worry if it looks really dark on the outside, it does have a dark crust but inside is pale and golden!  Allow cool, then brush the top with warm honey before slicing...

This is warm weather cake, the flavours really have a greek zing to them, use the best honey you can get by the way - I really think it makes a difference!

You can also leave the apricots in bigger chunks if you prefer!  Serve with a dollop of greek yoghurt.