This easy apricot quick bread is a must this stone fruit season! The combination of nutty, buttery almonds and juicy fragrant apricots give a gorgeous flavor, reminiscent of frangipane!
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If you're looking for more dessert recipes for seasonal summer fruits, try my vegan apricot cake, peach cobbler muffins, apricot tart, peach cheesecake, Charlotte au fraises, and Key lime pie!
🧾 Ingredients Needed
The ingredients for this apricot bread are pretty straightforward, most of which are pantry staples along with a few fresh items. Here's what to grab:
🍑 Ingredient Notes & Substitutions
Find the complete list of ingredients, quantities, and instructions in the recipe card at the end of this post.
- Fresh Apricots - Opt for ripe juicy apricots with a golden orange hue and a sweet fragrant smell. They should be firm to the touch but give in with slight pressure when squeezed.
- Almond Flour - This gives the cake batter an incredible flavor and adds moisture to the loaf. This will often be labeled in stores as "ground almonds". If in doubt, go for a brand of ground almonds/almond meal with a light, uniform color without specs of almond skin throughout. If you have some leftover, you could try my GF almond flour cake!
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil - This is my go-to oil for vegan baking, but if you don't enjoy the slightly floral flavor of EVOO, feel free to use a more neutral oil such as canola or sunflower oil.
- Non-Dairy Milk - I use soy milk for baking due to its high protein content. You can also use almond milk or oat milk. This is mixed with apple cider vinegar to make vegan buttermilk!
- Vegan Yogurt - This creates a beautifully moist cake with a tangy flavor and acts as an egg replacer. I use Alpro Greek-style yogurt, but you can also use thick coconut yogurt, vegan sour cream, or skyr.
- Vanilla Extract - This really brings out the flavors of the apricots and almonds. Optionally, you can add a half teaspoon of almond extract as well to bump up the almond flavor.
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🥣 How To Make Apricot Almond Cake
Here are step-by-step images of making this vegan apricot cake. Remember, the detailed printable recipe card is at the end of this page:
Step 1: In a large mixing bowl, whisk the wet ingredients (sugar, olive oil, vegan yogurt, and vanilla extract). Then mix in the homemade vegan buttermilk.
Step 2: Add the dry ingredients to a separate bowl and mix them evenly. That's all-purpose flour, almond flour, baking soda and baking powder, and sea salt).
Step 3: Fold the dry ingredients into the wet in 2 parts. Leave a few streaks of flour throughout the mixture.
Step 4: Fold through the chopped apricots until combined and there are no visible lumps of flour.
Step 5: Transfer the almond cake batter into a prepared loaf tin and smooth the top using an offset spatula. Sprinkle the flaked almonds over the cake.
Step 6: Bake until golden brown and risen according to the recipe card below. Once baked, let the cake sit in the pan for 10 minutes, and then carefully lift it onto a wire rack to continue cooling before adding the glaze.
💡 Recipe Tips
Use ripe apricots. If they are still a little hard, let them ripen in a paper bag on your kitchen counter for a few days. However, be careful not to let them become overripe. Even one bruised or spoiled apricot in the bag can turn the other fruits (I learned this the hard way!).
Remove the pits before measuring. The easiest way to remove the pits is to cut the apricots in half. Then measure the apricot halves until you have the required amount before dicing them.
Use a parchment sling. I like to line both sides of the loaf pan with parchment paper creating a double sling. Because almond flour cakes tend to have a more delicate crumb, they can stick to the sides of the tin more easily.
Don't open the oven throughout the baking time. This is especially important during the first 20 minutes of baking, as the sudden change in temperature can cause the cake to deflate.
Use a serrated knife. Cut the cake only once it has cooled fully, and use a knife with a toothed blade such as a large bread knife to slice it. This is the best way to cut through any cake with a nut or crumble topping.
💬 FAQs
For sure! You could try other stonefruits such as peaches, nectarines, plums, or cherries.
I reckon you could, but the result won't be the same since dried apricots are dense and chewy whereas fresh apricots are fragrant and jammy.
Place the cake in an airtight container and store at room temperature for up to 3 days, or in the fridge for up to 5-6 days.
Absolutely! You can freeze this cake whole in an airtight container or ziplock bag, or cut it into individual slices and separate them between sheets of parchment before freezing in a sealed container or bag.
Defrost it at room temperature for a couple of hours before serving.
🍞 More Vegan Loaf Cakes
Love this recipe? Please leave a 5-star ★★★★★ rating in the recipe card below and consider leaving a comment as well, thanks!
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📖 Recipe
Easy Vegan Apricot Almond Cake
Equipment
Ingredients
- 180 g (6.35 oz) fresh apricots washed, dried and pits removed *see note 1
- 180 ml (¾ cup) soy milk *see note 2
- 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
- 200 g (1 cup) granulated sugar
- 100 g (¼ cup + 3 tablespoons) vegan Greek-style yogurt or Skyr *see note 3
- 80 ml (⅓ cup) olive oil *see note 4
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 220 g (1 ¾ cups + 1 tablespoon) all-purpose flour
- 100 g (1 cup) almond flour or ground almonds *see note 5
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- 2 tablespoons flaked almonds
Lemon Glaze (optional)
- 60 g (½ cup) powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice freshly squeezed
Instructions
- Prep the apricots: Chop the apricots into small cubes (approx 1-2 cm). Set aside.
- Make buttermilk: In a jug, mix the soy milk and apple cider vinegar and set aside.
- Mix wet ingredients: To a large bowl, add the sugar, vegan yogurt, olive oil, and vanilla extract and whisk to combine. Add the vegan buttermilk (soy milk + vinegar) and whisk again.
- Mix dry ingredients: To a separate bowl, add the all-purpose flour, almond flour, baking powder, baking soda, and sea salt and whisk to combine.
- Combine wet and dry ingredients: Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in 2 parts. Fold the ingredients into the batter between each increment until there are just a few streaks of flour/flour pockets. Do not be tempted to overmix!
- Add apricots: Toss the diced apricots into the batter and fold them through until combined and there are no visible pockets of flour.
- Assemble: Add the batter to the prepared loaf pan and smooth out the top of it with a spatula or knife. Place the pan on top of an aluminum tray or baking sheet. Optionally, dip a butter knife in some more olive oil and run it through the center of the loaf, this will help the loaf to crack in the center once it bakes.
- Sprinkle the flaked almonds on top of the surface of the cake.
- Bake: Bake for 55-65 minutes. The loaf will rise and the top will be golden brown. Check the cake is done at the 55-minute mark by piercing it with a toothpick or a knife, the knife should come out clean with just a few visible crumbs. Continue to bake in 5-minute increments as and if needed until baked through
- Allow the cake to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before transferring it to a cooling rack to cool completely. Once the loaf is completely cool, carefully transfer it to a tray or sheet of parchment paper.
- Make the glaze: Whisk together the powdered sugar and lemon juice until smooth. Add more sugar for a thicker glaze, or less sugar for a runnier consistency.
- Garnish: Once the cake has cooled, place a sheet of parchment paper under the cooling rack to catch any icing. Drizzle the glaze on top of the cake.
- Storage: Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days, or in the fridge for up to 5-6 days. You can also freeze this cake in an airtight container and defrost it a couple of hours before serving.
Notes
- Apricots: Weighed after stones removed.
- Soy Milk: Swap for almond milk or oat milk.
- Vegan Yogurt: I use Alpro Greek style. You can also use vegan skyr, vegan sour cream, or very thick coconut yogurt.
- Olive Oil: Or neutral oil like canola (rapeseed oil) or sunflower oil.
- Almond Flour: This will often be labeled in stores as "ground almonds". If in doubt, go for a brand of ground almonds with a uniform color without specs of almond skin throughout.
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This recipe is spot on! It is your first recipe I’ve tried. The cake turned out amazing, moist and delicious! I’m not vegan, but like to make eggless cakes. FYI, I used regular milk and regular Greek yogurt, reduced the sugar to 3/4 cup, added more fresh apricots and skipped the drizzle.
Used wholemeal flour and dried apricots (after being soaked for some time) Easy and a great cake recipe. Delicious.
Hi Jane,
Thank you so much for your detailed feedback, I'm sure this will be helpful for others wanting to try the same. Appreciate it!
hi! This looks stunning and we are just coming into apricot season down-under. I am wondering if I could bake this in a round 22cm tin to feed 12-14 ish people. Would love any tips on scaling and adjusting the baking time. Thank you!
Hi Jenny,
That's great you're coming into apricot season there 🙂 I would say you would want to 1.5x the recipe to be able to feed 14 people, to be on the safe side! With baking time, just keep a close eye on it, I would check it 10-15 minutes before the recipe suggests and do a toothpick test to gauge how its doing on baking time. I hope this helps!
Oh my goodness! This recipe was incredible. The apricots added this amazing tanginess to the spongey beautifully delicate cake and it turned out better than my husband and I could have imagined! I even used half panela half raw cane sugar and fully wholegrain spelt flour (with a little extra soy) and the result ended up being one of my favourite cakes of all time. Thank you Christina for the wonderful work you do, you have brought us such deliciousness one (or twice!) a week for over a year now!🙏🏼
Hello!
Oh my goodness, thank you so much for your lovely review! That's great you were able to swap out for spelt flour as well - so happy you're both enjoying the recipes! Christina xx
Sehr lecker und saftig
Thank you so much for your lovely feedback, Marianne!
Hi Christina
Can I ask you something about the almond flour? I’m from Germany and in Germany “almond flour” and “ground almonds” is not the same. Almond flour is a dry flour often used for a low carb diet and ground almonds are small chopped almonds, normally without the skin. Which product would you recommend for the cake?
All the best
Sarah
Hi Sarah,
Absolutely! In this case you could use either, as long as the ground almonds are very finely milled which may be labeled as extra fine. You just want to avoid large almond pieces or ground almonds that have the skin left on. I hope this helps!
Can you use same quantity with dried apricots?
Hi Natalie,
I reckon you could, but the result will be quite different since dried apricots are dense and chewy whereas fresh apricots are fragrant and turn jammy when baked.
I’d love to try this recipe but before I do I was just wondering about the quantity of Baking powder …it’s accurate and not a typo? One tablespoon? I just wanted to confirm.
Thank you! Love your recipes!
Hi Vee,
Yes, 1 tablespoon is correct, thanks for checking in and I hope you enjoy the recipe 🙂