Little Aprium Cakes

I wanted to get some more seasonal recipes out of the way, so I decided to make a few things with fresh cherries. Sadly, though, neither the pear cherry crisp nor the cherry almond muffins I made were good enough to share. Related, though: how to remove cherry stains.

So then I decided to turn to another stone fruit, the apricot. I wanted to make Bon Appétit’s Little Apricot Cakes. The Engineer couldn’t find apricots at the store, because apparently I’d just missed the season, but luckily, he didn’t come home empty-handed: he got apriums, an apricot-plum hybrid that tastes like an apricot but looks like a plum. These little stone fruits were perfect for the recipe!

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 ½ tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. kosher salt
6 Tbsp. (¾ stick) unsalted butter, room temperature, or cold margarine
1/3 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp. finely grated lemon zest
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/3 cup lactose-free whole milk
2 apricots (or small stone fruit of your choice), halved, pitted, cut into ¼-inch wedges
2 Tbsp. raw sugar

Preheat oven to 350 °F. Grease muffin tin (the recipe was supposed to yield 12 little cakes, but I only got 9).

Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl.

Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar in another medium bowl, occasionally scraping down sides of bowl, until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add egg, lemon zest, and vanilla and beat until combined.

With mixer on low speed, add dry ingredients in 3 additions alternately with milk in 2 additions, beginning and ending with dry ingredients. Divide batter among muffin cups (cups will be only 1/3 full) and smooth tops. Top with apricot slices and sprinkle with raw sugar.

Bake until cakes are golden and a tester inserted into the centers comes out clean, 20–25 minutes. Transfer pan to a wire rack; let pan cool 5 minutes. Transfer cakes to rack and let cool completely.