Car­damom Apri­cot Upside-Down Olive Oil Cake

Meesh mesh is ​“apri­cot” in Hebrew, and when meesh mesh sea­son is in full bloom in Israel, you find them in every­thing from pas­tries to fruit leathers to spreads. But in North Amer­i­ca, apri­cots are more of an under­dog fruit, which I’ve nev­er real­ly under­stood, both be- cause of their adorably fuzzy baby-tush soft­ness and also their tart-sweet flo­ral fla­vor. I par­tic­u­lar­ly like how they cut through the sweet­ness and rich­ness of a baked good and pair so beau­ti­ful­ly with nat­u­ral­ly flo­ral spices like car­damom. I’ve put both to work in this lus­cious­ly dense, per­fect­ly break­fast-appro­pri­ate cake, which you can leave on your counter and enjoy through­out the day as a snack, with your after­noon cof­fee or tea, or as dessert.

Makes one 9‑inch cake

FOR THE CAR­DAMOM APRI­COT TOPPING

4 table­spoons (1÷2 stick) unsalt­ed but­ter, melt­ed, plus more for greasing

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar 

1/2 tea­spoon kosher salt

1/4 tea­spoon ground cardamom

12 medi­um apri­cots, halved and pitted

FOR THE CAKE

1 cup gran­u­lat­ed sugar

3 car­damom pods, crushed to remove the seeds

2 cups all-pur­pose flour

1 tea­spoon bak­ing powder 

1 tea­spoon salt

1/2 tea­spoon bak­ing soda 

1/2 cup extra-vir­gin olive oil 

1/3 cup full-fat Greek yogurt 2 large eggs

1 tea­spoon vanil­la extract 

1/2 cup whole milk

FOR SERV­ING

2 table­spoons honey 

Full-fat Greek yogurt or Labaneh

1. Make the top­ping: Light­ly grease a 9‑inch cake pan with butter.
2. In a medi­um bowl, stir togeth­er the melt­ed but­ter, brown sug­ar, salt, and car­damom. Spread the mix­ture in an even lay­er on the bot­tom of the pre­pared pan.
3. Arrange the apri­cots cut side down over the bot­tom of the pan, keep­ing them as even­ly spaced as pos­si­ble. (This will become the top of the cake, so you want things look­ing cute when you turn it out.) Set aside.
4. Make the cake: Pre­heat the oven to 350°F.
5. In a high-speed blender, com­bine the gran­u­lat­ed sug­ar and car­damom seeds and blend until fra­grant and well com­bined, about 1 minute. Set aside.
6. In a medi­um bowl, whisk togeth­er the flour, bak­ing pow­der, salt, and bak­ing soda. Set aside.
7. In a large bowl, whisk togeth­er the car­damom sug­ar, olive oil, yogurt, eggs, and vanilla.
8. Add about one-third of the dry ingre­di­ents to the wet ingre­di­ents and stir to com­bine. Add about one-third of the milk and stir again. Con­tin­ue alter­nat­ing until all the dry ingre­di­ents and milk have been added.
9. Spread the bat­ter in an even lay­er over the apri­cots and top­ping and bake for 45 to 55 min­utes, until the cake is gold­en brown and a tooth­pick insert­ed in the cen­ter comes out clean.
10. Allow the cake to cool on a cool­ing rack for 5 min­utes. Place a serv­ing plat­ter over the top and very care­ful­ly flip to invert the cake, leav­ing it in the pan. Wait about 1 minute before lift­ing the pan. If any of the apri­cots have stuck, just place them back on the cake.
11. To serve: In a small bowl, whisk togeth­er the hon­ey with 1 table­spoon of warm water. Brush the glaze over the cake and serve warm or at room tem­per­a­ture with dol­lops of yogurt.
12. Store left­overs in an air­tight con­tain­er at room tem­per­a­ture for up to 2 days.

Excerpt­ed from Tahi­ni Baby: Bright, Every­day Recipes That Hap­pen to Be Veg­e­tar­i­an by Eden Grin­sh­pan. Copy­right © 2025 by Eden Grin­sh­pan. Pub­lished by Avery, an imprint of Pen­guin Ran­dom House LLC. Repro­duced by arrange­ment with the Pub­lish­er. All rights reserved.