It’s been a while since I posted a dessert, so today’s guest recipe is going to be a real treat for you (see what I did there?). Our contributor is a very special lady who makes pretty amazing whole food/gluten-free/paleo-friendly desserts and treats, as well as some pretty mean savoury meals. Alice Nichols is the creator of The Whole Daily website and this lush-looking recipe for a paleo-friendly apricot upside-down cake is from her cookbook Sweet – A collection of Clean and Classy Sweet Recipes For The Health Conscious Cook. More about Alice’s books here.

I personally love upside-down cakes, especially made with almond meal and some sort of fruit. They are always so moist and fluffy. And with apricot being one of my favourite stone fruits, this combination has my name written all over it. I hope you give this a try at home, I certainly will. Feel free to use other types of fruit instead of apricot.
And now here is the recipe!


Flourless Apricot Upside-Down Cake
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 25 mins
- Total Time: 40 mins
- Yield: 4 1x
- Category: Dessert
Description
Apricots and almonds always taste delicious together and this cake made with almond flour is moist and full of flavour. The cinnamon and nutmeg adds a sweet spice to this cake. You can substitute the apricots for any other stone fruit.
Ingredients
- 1 tin of apricot halves in juice or 6 apricots halved.
- 1 1/3 cup almond meal
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup rice malt syrup (honey or other natural sweetener could also be used)
- 2 tablespoons coconut milk
- 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil (mild flavour)
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon powder
- 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
- pinch of nutmeg
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 160C.
- Grease four ramekins or one 20cm baking dish and lay halved apricots on the base insides facing down.
- Lightly beat eggs and add almond meal, rice malt syrup, olive oil, cinnamon, nutmeg
- vanilla bean paste, milk, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder.
- Place dish or ramekins onto an oven tray and bake for 25 mins or until the center of the cake no longer feels wet and springs back lightly when touched.
- Take out of the oven and leave for 5 mins before turning out onto a cake board or stand.
- Serve with a dollop of full-fat cream or coconut cream.
I’m normally a chocolate cake type of girl but this cake looks amazing!
This has become my staple, quick, go to dessert. Fantastic recipe, thank you
★★★★★
Thanks Zoe 🙂
Hi Irena. Love your website and how generous you are with your recipes. I made the Flourless Upside-Down Apricot Cake but about half of the batter rose so high that it spilled out of the ramekins (I used 5 ramekins instead of 4). It tastes good but I didn’t get a good “cake” . I used honey instead of the syrup. I thought the batter was quite runny but didn’t do anything about it. I’m wondering if the almond flour is supposed to be packed into the measuring cup? Mine was pretty fluffy. Thanks for your help. I want to make it again.
Hi Glenda,
As this is a guest recipe from another author, I don’t know 100% what might have gone wrong but I will email Alice to find out for you.
Irena
I tripled this recipe and put it in an 11X15 pan with 2inch high sides. It was delicious!
Oh good to know it worked well as a larger cake. Thanks for sharing.
Is the coconut milk from a can, or the thinner milk you can buy chilled like nut milks? Thank you!
Hi just wondering if there is nutritional info for this recipe?
Hey Steph, I don’t have it on hand but you can easily copy/paste ingredients into something like MyFitnessPal calculator and get approximate numbers.
Hello,
Do you think coconut flour would also work well in this recipe? My daughter is allergic to nuts. Thank you 😊
I don’t know the exact measurements you would need for this particular recipe but I have this lovely citrus cake which is grain-free AND nut-free, and you could use the sponge cake recipe but with apricots instead. So combine the two recipes.
https://www.cookedandloved.com/recipes/citrus-drizzle-cake-grain-free-nut-free/
4 Times made and shared from our voluminous apricot tree. Thank you ! And thank all of Mama Natures’ contributions to a bundle of wondrous ‘cots !
★★★★★
Yummy I left out the oil and it turned out delicious
★★★★★
Glad it worked well without the oil too.