Omi’s Apricot Equal Weight Cake

My friend Anne has a bumper crop of apricots this year and when she gifted me a basket I immediately turned to Omi’s Apricot Equal Weight Cake. I think of apricot cake as the Austrian version of a chocolate chip cookie. I often have one on hand for the kids and their friends to breeze by and grab a piece during the summer. An entire cake easily disappears in a single afternoon. The beauty of an equal weight cake is that it can be made in any size, the only thing you need to remember is “equal weight”. Weigh the eggs, then add equal weights of butter, sugar and flour.

Ideally you will want to use a kitchen scale and if you don’t have one, you should probably just buy one. Williams Sonoma has a nice digital scale for $30 but you can find them anywhere that sells kitchen goods. For a 15″X10″ baking dish I start with six large eggs which turns out to be about 400 grams (give or take).

Heat the oven to 350 degrees

Eggs
Butter softened to room temperature
Flour
Sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
zest of 1 lemon
2 tsp. baking powder
Lots of apricots or plums, pitted and quartered

Start by weighing the eggs, then set them aside.
Weigh an equal amount of butter. Using an electric mixer combine the eggs and butter until smooth (add the eggs one at a time) Weigh an equal amount of sugar, mix into the batter.

 

Add the lemon zest and vanilla. Weigh an equal amount of flour and sift in the baking powder.  Mix the flour/baking powder into the batter until smooth and creamy.

 

Pour the batter into a prepared dish and bake 10-15 minutes until slightly set.

 

 

Remove the cake from the oven and cover the top of the cake with apricots.

Bake an additional 25-35 minutes until done.