Apricot Almond Coffee Cake

It's been a little quiet here on the blog for the last week or so. I was in Virginia for a few days on a work trip, then I laid low at home and relaxed for a couple nights after that. Last night we had a couple of our good friends over for dinner and games, then we all headed to a local comedy club for a show. It was really fun but I can definitely tell I'm getting old because my friend Shayna and I both started falling asleep at the comedy club! It wasn't because the comedian wasn't funny, we just couldn't keep our eyes open! Talk about not getting out much...haha

Today I'm looking forward to the short work week, and of course, to Thanksgiving! I love any holiday that involves a big tasty meal! (Which is basically all of them, right?) I spent part of my day today making my contribution to the Thanksgiving food, though I hadn't actually planned on doing it today. There was a little bit of a mistake when I started this recipe today. I bought the ingredients to make 2 batches of this cake, one as a large bundt cake to bring to Thanksgiving, and one to split between 4 mini, disposable tube pans to give as gifts to our neighbors. It wasn't til I was about ready to bake the cake that realized something was just not right. The batter was way thicker than I remembered it being the last time I made it. So I looked back at the ingredient list and realized that instead of 2 sticks of butter, I added 2 cups of butter (4 sticks). Ugh. I ended up just adding all the other ingredients a second time and mixing it all together. Luckily it seemed to work just fine! This cake was one of our favorites growing up, and it's great any time of day. Since it's called a coffee cake, it obviously qualifies as a breakfast food. But it could also be a dessert or a snack cake since it even has fruit! (Apricot preserves are totally fruit.) I don't have any "process" pictures because my camera battery died, but that's probably a good thing since I messed up the process anyway. Here's the recipe!

Apricot Almond Coffee Cake
From Southern Sideboards, a Jackson, Mississippi Junior League Cookbook


1c. butter
2c. sugar
2 eggs
1c. sour cream
1t. almond extract
2c. flour
1t. baking powder
1/4t. salt
1c. sliced almonds,divided
10oz. jar apricot preserves

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

- In the bowl of a stand mixer (or in a large bowl and using a hand mixer) cream butter and sugar until fluffy.
- Beat in eggs to the sugar and butter, one at a time.
- Fold in the sour cream and almond extract.
- Mix together the flour, baking powder and salt, fold in also.
- Place about one-third of the mixture in a greased and floured bundt pan. Sprinkle ½ cup of almonds and spread half of the apricot preserves over the batter.
- Add the remaining batter. Top with the remaining almonds and preserves. Bake at 350 degrees for one hour or until done.
- Cool on a rack for about 15 to 20 minutes before turning out onto a plate.

* When filling the mini pans, I found it hard to spoon the batter in without getting it all over the sides. So I scraped all the batter into a gallon ziploc, then cut off a corner so there was about a 3/4" opening. I then squeezed two rounds of batter into each pan and smoothed it out with a little spatula. It made the whole process so much quicker and easier.

* Recipe may be varied by substituting vanilla for the almond extract and a mixture of 1 cup chopped pecans, 4 tablespoons brown sugar and 2 teaspoons cinnamon for the apricot preserves and almonds.

I was really excited to finally use these little disposable pans since I got them several months ago on clearance. I've seen ones like it at baking stores and even Michael's or Hobby Lobby. They're great for giving things like cakes without having to worry about getting your pan back. The cakes just BARELY fit in the little Thanksgiving treat bags that I got yesterday at Hobby Lobby. Oh, and Hobby Lobby already has all their Thanksgiving stuff marked 80% off, so I got a pack of 20 bags for only 40 cents! I'm a complete sucker for holiday themed treat bags for some reason. I've got tons of them, but this time I actually used them! haha

I guess that's it for tonight. I seriously cannot express how excited I am to only have 2, maybe 2.5 days of work this week! It's gonna be sooooo great! I hope you all have a nice short week too and a very Happy Thanksgiving! I've got one more post planned for between  now and then with a recipe that could help you use up some left over turkey, so be on the look out!