Upside-down cakes are culinary classics; pineapple upside-down cake is certain to feature in almost every novice cook’s early attempts at cooking as it’s pretty much foolproof and damn tasty to boot. I certainly remember making one in home economics class in high school, complete with lurid red glace cherries.

These baby cakes are a variation on the theme and are low fat, bursting with flavour, and very quick to prepare. Perfect for busy mums. I halved the recipe as I’m still dieting and too many cakes lying around the house are a sure-fire recipe for disaster at the scales. The original recipe was pretty straightforward, so I didn’t bother fiddling with any of the quantities. As far as I can tell, it worked perfectly.

If you don’t fancy apricots you could of course vary the fruit used. A variation on a variation–cute. Pineapple is the obvious option, but a slice of peach and a couple of juicy raspberries would be divine.

I’ll definitely be making these cakes again; after one bite I was regretting only making six and by the time I’d finished the first one I was eyeing the other five speculatively. Alas, Dave would have noticed if all the cakes vanished and Lucas isn’t old enough to become a glutton’s scapegoat yet. Ah well, I have four of these lovely, lovely cakes sitting in the kitchen, just waiting to find a home in my tummy. Oh well, that’s breakfast sorted then….

But I digress. The apricots turned out meltingly soft and caramelised and the cake which tenderly blankets them is soft, sweet and chewy in places. While they were cooking I could only smell the vanilla, but it’s very much a background flavvour in the finished product with almonds taking centre stage alongside the apricots.

How long till breakfast?

Apricot upside-down cakes

Makes 6
WW (UK) points: 2 per cake
Source: The Australian Women’s Weekly, Low-fat food for life

½ tablespoon light muscovado sugar
6 canned apricot halves in juice, drained (the smallest can you can find will be perfect for this)
1 large egg
75g light muscovado sugar
45g ground almonds
25g self-raising flour
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
4 tablespoons skimmed milk

To finish:
20g baker’s glaze (or apricot conserve)

Preheat oven to 180C / 160C fan oven / Gas Mark 4. If you have a regular six-hole muffin tin, then grease all holes, otherwise, grease six holes of a 12-hole tin.

Sprinkle the half tablespoon of sugar evenly into the six prepared holes. Place one apricot half in each, cut-side down.

Beat egg and rest of sugar together until light and fluffy. Stir in remaining ingredients with the exception of the glaze/conserve. The mixture will resemble a batter rather than a traditional cake mixture.

Spoon evenly over the apricots and bake for about 20 minutes until the top of a cake is springy and not sticky. Stand for five minutes and then turn out onto wire rack. You may need to run a knife around the edges of the cakes to help them out.

Melt baker’s glaze/conserve in a pan or in the microwave. Brush over hot cakes. You should have just enough for a thin coat on the tops.