Recipe: Not-Quite-Nick's Apricot Almond Crumb Cake

Makes a 10-inch cake to serve 12.

To make my crumb cake healthier, I replaced the egg yolks with whole eggs and half the butter with canola oil. I also added ground almonds and almond extract to the topping. The cake is best served warm but may be baked a day ahead and re-warmed just before serving.

1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

2 eggs

¾ cup sugar

½ cup canola oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

10 medium apricots (1 ½ to 2 pounds)

Almond Crumb Topping (recipe below)

1. Butter a 10-inch springform pan and line it with a disk of parchment or wax paper. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl and set aside.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar until the mixture is very smooth and creamy. Stream in the oil and the vanilla extract, whisking all the while.

4. With a rubber spatula, stir the egg mixture into the flour mixture and transfer the batter to the prepared cake pan.

5. Cut the apricots in half, pluck out the pits and arrange the apricot halves cut-side-up on top of the batter.

6. Distribute the crumb topping evenly over the apricots and bake the cake until crumbs are well-colored and cake is firm and no longer liquid in the center, about 55 minutes. Cool the cake on a rack for 20 minutes before removing the sides of the pan and transferring the cake to a serving plate. Serve warm.

Almond Crumb Topping

Traditional crumb cakes do not contain almonds, but to my mind, stone fruits and almonds go hand in hand. A touch of almond extract replaces the usual cinnamon.

1 cup all-purpose flour

½ cup whole almonds

½ cup brown sugar

¼ teaspoon almond extract

½ cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch bits

Put the flour, almonds and brown sugar in the bowl of a food processor and motor until the almonds are completely ground and the mixture is uniformly crumbled. With the motor running, add the almond extract and the butter. Process just until the mixture is crumbly; do not over-process or it will become paste-like.