The fruits of our labors

My husband and I are not exactly green-fingered. When we used to live in the UK, we lived in the middle house in a row of three. On the one side, lived a retired couple, whose fingers were VERY green. They spent what appeared to be every waking moment in the garden making sure that each blade of grass felt cared for. As for Tim and I, we would have a panic gardening session about once every couple of months when we raced to save everything still vaguely alive in our garden from imminent death by neglect, and then swear that we would be out there more often, knowing from experience that this was futile. Fortunately, for appearances at least, on the other side of our house lived a family who, as far as I could tell in the three years we lived there, never felt the need for a panic gardening session, and were clearly going for 'the natural' look in their yard. The word 'unkempt' doesn't quite capture it, but you get my drift. We contented ourselves by not being the best looking garden on the block, but not being the worst either.

Now that we live in California, we spend a lot more time outside and are fortunate to have a large yard. Knowing our talents, and time, are, to put it mildly, limited, we have a great gardener who takes care of things for us once a week. Living in California also means that there are a wide variety of fruit trees we can grow. We inherited an old apricot tree which periodically looks perilously close to death, and then at other times, has a sudden lease of new life and gives us so many apricots that we don't know what to do with them. This year is one of the latter.

 

I see plenty of jam and pies in our future, and the apricots are delicious just eaten as is. Sweet and luscious:

But I also wanted to try something new with the fruit, so I googled apricots and found this recipe from a 2003 edition of Gourmet.

Calling this post 'The fruits of our labors' is probably pushing it, given that we didn't plant the tree, and do very little to care for it, beyond paying to have it trimmed and cared for by those far more skilled than us. But we did go out there and pick the fruit!

 

Even in years with a more scant harvest, I will be making this again, and probably with other fruits too. It was one of those dishes, where the first mouthful was greeted with the kind of sighs and raised eyebrows that every chef should experience more often. We had it warm with vanilla ice-cream that evening, but it was also delicious on its own, at room temperature, the following day.

 

Fresh Apricot Upside-Down Cake
Serves 8-10

Topping:
1 stick (1/2 cup/4oz) unsalted butter
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
10-12 small (2-2 1/4") fresh apricots (around 1 1/4lbs), halved lengthwise and pitted

Cake:
1 3/4 cups AP flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 stick (1/2 cup/4oz) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extract
2 large eggs (at room temp for at least 30 mins)
3/4 cup well-shaken buttermilk

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Spray a 10" diameter, (preferably spring-form) baking pan with canola oil spray.
2. Make topping: heat butter in a skillet over moderate heat until foam subsides, but don't let it brown. Reduce heat to low and sprinkle brown sugar evenly over the butter. Cook undisturbed for 3 minutes (not all of the sugar will have melted). Remove from the heat and tip into the base of a the prepared baking tin.
3. Arrange the apricot halves, cut sides down, close together, on top of the brown sugar mixture in the baking tin.
4. Make cake batter: sift together the flour, baking powder, soda and salt into a small bowl.
5. Beat together the softened butter, sugar and extracts in a large bowl for 2-3 minutes (in a stand mixer, for 3-4 minutes, if you are using a handheld mixer). Beat in eggs, one at a time, then continue to beat until the mixture is creamy and doubled in volume (about 3 minutes).
6. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture in 3 batches, alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat until just combined.
7. Gently spoon batter over apricots and spread evenly.
8. Bake cake in middle of the oven until golden brown and a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 40-45 minutes.
9. Remove from the oven and immediately invert on to a large plate and remove baking tin. Serve warm or at room temperature.