Chocolate-Apricot Pound Cake
- Ready In:
- 1hr 20mins
- Ingredients:
- 18
- Yields:
-
1 Bundt Cake
- Serves:
- 12
ingredients
-
DRY INGREDIENTS
- 2 1⁄4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon potato starch
- 1⁄4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1⁄4 teaspoon salt
- 3⁄4 cup dried apricot
- 2 tablespoons extra finely granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 1⁄2 cup 60% bittersweet chocolate
-
LIQUID INGREDIENTS
- 1⁄2 cup sour cream
- 1 tablespoon half-and-half
- 1⁄4 cup Amaretto
- 1⁄2 teaspoon vanilla extract
-
FOR CREAMING
- 5 ounces unsalted butter, room temperature (1 stick Tablespoons)
- 2 3⁄4 cups extra finely granulated sugar (2 1/4 cups or 18 ozs.)
- 4 large eggs
-
GLAZE
- 1⁄2 cup apricot jam or 1/2 cup apricot preserves
- 1 tablespoon apricot brandy
directions
-
PREPARE AHEAD OF TIME:
- Pulse the apricots, sugar, and cornstarch in a food processor to chop the fruit into 1/2-inch pieces.
- Add the chocolate and continue to pulse 2 to 3 times for three seconds each or until the chocolate is broken into small 1/2-inch pieces.
- Set aside to combine with the other dry ingredients.
-
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Set the rack in the middle of the oven.
- Sift the flour directly into a bowl.
- Measure the other dry ingredients into a separate mixing bowl, add the flour, and whisk for 10 seconds to blend; set aside.
- Measure the liquid ingredients into a separate bowl, whisk to combine, and set aside.
- Measure the butter and sugar into separate bowls and set aside.
- Crack the eggs into a small bowl and set aside.
- In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar on the lowest speed for 3 to 4 minutes.
- With the mixer still on the lowest speed, add the eggs one at a time, fully incorporating after each addition.
- Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl.
- Add the dry ingredient mixture alternately with the liquid mixture in 3 to 5 additions each, beginning and ending with the dry mixture.
- Move swiftly through this step to avoid overworking the batter.
- Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl all the way down.
- Don't miss the clumps of ingredients hiding on the bottom of the bowl.
- Mix on medium speed for 25 to 30 seconds to develop the batter's structure.
- Spray the pan well with a nonstick spray.
- Fill the bundt pan about three-quarters full by depositing the batter with the rubber spatula in small clumps around the prepared pan instead of by pouring it into one spot.
- Level the batter with the rubber spatula and bake 45-50 minutes
- Once the edges of the cake are browning and the surface appears dry, test for doneness by inserting a bamboo skewer in the center of the cake; when the skewer shows some crumbs - the cake is done.
- Remove the pan from the oven and place on a heat-resistant surface or wire rack.
- Once the cake has cooled for 5 to 10 minutes, remove the cake by inverting the pan onto a flat surface.
- Allow it to cool to room temperature, about 30 minutes, before glazing.
- Store under a cake dome at room temperature, or wrapped in plastic in the fridge for up to 1 week.
- **Alcohol-free variation: Omit the amaretto and vanilla. Add the seeds of 1 vanilla pod to butter and 1 tablespoon alcohol-free almond extract.
-
GLAZE:
- Heat the apricot jam or preserves and water (if using) in a small saucepan over medium heat until liquid (melted).
- Remove from heat and strain the jam through a fine strainer to remove any fruit lumps. (If using, add the liqueur at this point.)
- Drizzle the apricot preserves along the sides and then in the center of the cake.
- Glaze makes enough for an 8 or 9 inch cake.
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RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
<p>Hello all, thank you for visiting My Page but forgive me for it is a work in progress! :) As I am sure you have noticed I changed my Chef Name to Manami which means love & beauty. ;) Just thought I should get with the program - my geisha & my icon! :) Don't fret, I won't change it again! <br /><br />I am 70 years young and I live in a nursing home, which is out of this world, I am treated like a princess and the world is my oyster! I have a private room and during the season I do taxes for most of the staff, as well as my personal clients that have been following me since I left the business world about 25 years ago. I was rear-ended by a van and it turned my whole world upside down. Why dwell on that? <br /><br />I am an American Jew (from NYC) who moved to Havana, Cuba when I was 2 1/2 years old, lived there until a few days after Castro took over and vamoosed it out of that country as fast as my legs would carry me! I was on a forced hiatus from the UofM, due to illness. <br /><br />From there my sister, mother and I went to NYC to work and my father went to Haiti in Port-Au-Prince, where he and my uncle had purchased some tiny cocoa plantations & a chocolate factory - for the choccolate liquer - to make baking chocolate (the real bitter stuff). We joined my father about 2 months later where I spent 2 of the most carefree & wonderful years of my life! It is the stuff that movies are made of! (A la Grace Kelly - even my clothes were like hers)> </p>
<p>I then continued my studies in upstate NY and hated it because it was too, too cold!:( Went back to NYC to work and see what I wanted to do with my life - I was all of 20 years old and had to drop out of school because of illness and then because of the weather! Yuck - so I got a job in a Textile Buying Office as a receptionist and soon I found myself buying trimmings! Loved it and was very happy with the work I was doing. <br /><br />However, I got an offer from two young guys who had a factory in Cleveland, Ohio, where they made Maternity Clothes and they wanted me to be in charge of the shipping dept, keep inventory and in my spare time - help with the designing!! I couldn't pass it up - the offer sounded so great and the salary was twice what I was making in the NYC. So I went to Cleveland, got married, had both my children and got a divorce 15 years later. <br /><br />Then my children and I moved to South Florida and have been here since 1978, I can't count that far back :) <br /><br />Learned how to do taxes with H&R Block and worked simultaneously as a Supervisor in 2 offices for them for 15 years. Then after the accident everything went spiralling downwards until I could no longer walk alone even with a walker - so the next step was a wheelchair. Stayed at home with a lot of help (nurses, PT therapists) fixed the bathroom so I could bathe myself and fixed the kitchen so I could help warm-up meals (was taught how to cook in rehab) and so forth and so on. <br /><br />However, the fire department had other plans for me, I called them too often to pick me up off the floor - how embarassing! So they gave me a choice - either a home or they would have to call HRS! :( (very sad) <br /><br />It was there, in my home where I was robbed! <img title=Cry src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-cry.gif border=0 alt=Cry /> All my cookbooks (all my Julia Childs Cookbooks, my Settlement Cookbook which had been my mothers - published in 1939 - with all her notes) my mother's cookbooks from Cuba & Haiti, all my handwritten recipes. They also took all my Delft collection, some antiques that I had in the kitchen like my rolling pin, a beautiful old & used wooden bowl, a charcoal-iron that was brought north when my parents left Haiti, it was hand-painted & was gorgeous, as well as all the other things that are too numerous to mention! <br /><br />That proved to be the last straw & from there it was an ALF,<img title=Yell src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-yell.gif border=0 alt=Yell /> which was horrible, and then on to another home where the administrator of that home became the administrator here and voila, here I am. <img title=Smile src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-smile.gif border=0 alt=Smile /></p>
<p>I have a beautiful large private room with a private bath, furnished to my liking: eclectic! <img title=Wink src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-wink.gif border=0 alt=Wink /> My room is large enough to house my office and all the other odds and ends with which I like to surround myself.<br /><br />During tax season, mostly, my room is always full (of course I love it that way)! I have a blanket my daughter bought for me in New Mexico and that is on my bed. You guessed it - that is where everbody sits or on my great grandfather's arm chair which is in great shape. <img title=Smile src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-smile.gif border=0 alt=Smile /> Update 01/11/2008 that time is here again :) Have started doing taxes already and not just regular taxes but corporations, partnerships and 1040X - ammended returns! Whoopee! I love the feeling I get when this time comes around and I get into gear!!! I love it! :) <br /><br />The head chef, the kitchen supervisor & the dietician enjoy the recipes from Zaar; the ones that I post, as well as, the others. We are in the process of changing the menu right now - so we have been doing a lot of figuring. The administrator is so cute because every once in a while she asks for a recipe and then she gives me a pack of paper so I can print them. <img title=Wink src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-wink.gif border=0 alt=Wink /><br /><br />I am president of the resident council and most of the family members come to me to take care of their grievances - this way I do my part - and the staff can take care of the larger problems! It has been working for 10 years - why change if it ain't broke?<img title=Wink src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-wink.gif border=0 alt=Wink /></p>
<p>Well, it's time to say hasta luego folks. <img title=Laughing src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-laughing.gif border=0 alt=Laughing /><br /><br /></p>