French Apricot Cake (Gluten-free)

This gluten-free French apricot cake is the best dessert made with seasonal apricots during the summertime. Roasted apricots inside this flourless cake bring texture, flavor and give the dessert an attractive look.

Yes, summer is calling. The stone fruit season, especially the apricot one, is short, just a few weeks.

I try to eat this fruit as much as I can and make a few jars of apricot jam to give to friends, galette, replacing peaches in the recipe, fruit cobbler, and, of course, this divine dessert – apricot and almond cake.

This gluten-free apricot cake is the best go-to summer dessert for people with gluten intolerance.

The recipe may surprise you: a list of simple ingredients results in a delicious loaf cake full of flavors due to apricots and rum.

It is also a combination of textures where the cake is covered with flaked almonds, topped with whipped cream, and decorated with roasted and fresh fruits.

Feel free to get creative with the cake decoration. You can add more fresh fruits on top of the cake, skip the whipped cream and only arrange roasted apricots.

Or just leave the cake covered with flaked almonds and dusted with icing (powdered) sugar.

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• Why you should try this recipe
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• How to make French apricot cake
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Why you should try this recipe

1. Roasted fruits and olive oil bring moisture to this apricot cake.
2. Using only almond flour makes the dessert gluten-free.
3. Adding rum brings an additional flavor.
4. A combination of juicy apricots with toasted nuts is well balanced in the cake.
5. The beautiful decoration of the cake upgrades the simple apricot almond cake to the celebration one.

Ingredients

Here is a quick overview of what ingredients you will need. Follow the full recipe below for detailed amounts and instructions. I recommend making this recipe as written for the best results. 

Apricots: use large under-ripe or ripe fruits (not the overripe fruit) to soften with roasting.

Vanilla sugar: make it yourself or use store-bought vanilla sugar.

Olive oil: it brings moisture to the cake. If you want to avoid any taste of olive oil in the dessert, replace it with flavorless grape seed oil.

Butter: use the softened unsalted butter. Please bring it to room temperature one to two hours before you start. Please, do not substitute it for margarine.

Almond flour: use any brand of almond flour/meal to make the cake; they all will yield the same tasteful result.

When you measure the flour, spoon it from a package gently into a measuring cup.

Do NOT pack/press it down! Read this article about How to Measure Ingredients.

Rum: dark rum or other kind of rum perfectly works in the recipe.

Flaked almonds: to toast nuts, bring them to the preheated oven at 300 F/150 C and toast them for 10 to 15 minutes.

Whipping cream: use your favorite brand of heavy whipping cream.

Icing sugar: make it at home with a coffee grinder or use store-bought powdered sugar.

Apricot jam/preserves: use the thickest jam/preserves to stick flaked almonds over the cake.

Eggs, egg whites: see notes in the recipe card below regarding the amount conversions. Separate egg whites from egg yolks using an egg separator while the eggs are cold.

Granulated sugar, salt.

How to make French apricot cake

To roast apricots, preheat the oven to 480 F/250 C. Cut each apricot in half. Prepare a baking sheet covered with parchment paper.

Arrange fruits, convex side down. Sprinkle with vanilla sugar and olive oil (photo 1).

Bake for 2 to 3 minutes, depending on the maturity of apricots. Cool on the baking sheet (photo 2). Decrease oven temperature to 320 F/160 C.

To make the cake batter, beat softened butter with a pinch of salt and 120 g granulated sugar, using an electric mixer or a hand whisk (photo 3).

Add rum, half of the eggs slightly beaten with a fork, and half of the almond flour and mix with the hand whisk.

Finally, add the rest of the eggs and almond flour and combine (photo 4).

In a separate bowl, beat egg whites and the rest of the granulated sugar till soft picks (photo 5).

Add beaten egg whites to the principal preparation and gently mix with a rubber spatula (photo 6).

Place half of the cake batter in a buttered and floured silicone loaf pan. Arrange roasted apricots (photo 7) and keep a few for the decoration.

Then cover with the rest of the batter and sprinkle with flaked almonds (photo 8).

Bake at 320 F/160 C for 15 minutes, then decrease oven temperature to 295 F/145 C and bake for 45 minutes longer (photo 9).

Remove the cake from the oven, take it out of the pan and cool on a wire rack.

For the cake decoration, heat jam/preserves in a microwave for a few seconds.

Flip the cake upside down, brush it with the jam or preserves using a silicone brush, and cover with toasted flaked almonds (photo 10).

To make whipped cream, whisk whipping cream with icing sugar to obtain whipped cream (photo 11).

Pipe whipped cream on top of the cake, using any tip (I used a tube - star pastry tip), and decorate with roasted apricots and other fruit of your choice (photo 12).

Expert Tips

1. Replace apricots with peaches or nectarines cut in slices if you desire.
2. Skip rum to make the cake kid-friendly.
3. Brush the THICKEST apricot jam/preserves over the cake to stick flaked almonds.
4. Dust the ready cake with icing (powdered) sugar if fresh apricots are not sweet.
5. Decorate the top of the cake with the summer fruit of your choice.

Frequently asked question

Love summer cakes? Try these next!

• Plum Pavlova With Red Wine Sauce
• French Mille Feuille
• Coconut Dacquoise Cake
• Browse all the Cake Recipes

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Recipe

The nutrition information has been calculated using an online recipe nutrition calculator and is intended for informational purposes only and should be used as a general guideline. If the nutrition information is important to you, you should independently verify it using your preferred tool. Please, read the disclaimers in our Privacy Policy.

The recipe was adapted from http://nicolas-bernarde.com/. It was originally published on September 10, 2018. The recipe has been updated with new photos, content, and some changes to the recipe to make it even better. All posted pictures are mine.