Oatmeal Apricot Spice Cake

So for gift day this year, Gabe's mom gave him a package of glaceed apricots. think of a dried apricot. now imagine taking a syringe full of sugar syrup and injecting it directly into the dried apricot until it fills to the point of bursting. now dump that apricot in a bucket of sugar syrup and let it sit for several weeks. needless to say, these things are so rich that eating just one makes you feel nauseous. so, to use them up before gabe ate the whole thing in one sitting and proceeded to vomit all over our recently-cleaned apartment, i decided to make cake. yes, despite all the sugar and cream cheese frosting, a whole big slice of this cake is less rich than a single glaceed apricot.

this cake is pretty dense and hearty, definitely a winter cake, but very good. if you slightly reduced the sugar and left off the frosting, it would make a great breakfast or lunch snack. the original recipe called for just cinnamon and nutmeg, but we added lots of cardamom to make it chai-ful and delicious. we decorated it with walnuts and slices of the apricots. if you're making it without the frosting, i would add some chopped apricots right into the batter.

Oatmeal Apricot Spice Cake

Adapted from dyln.com

1 & 1/4 cup dark beer
1 cup regular rolled oats

1/2 cup softened butter
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup granulated white sugar (reduce to 1/2 cup if you want a less sweet cake)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbs grated lemon zest (we used grapefruit)

1 & 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and cardamom to taste

1/2 cup chopped dried (or glaceed) apricots, mixed with flour to prevent sticking
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped fine (optional - for decoration or to fold into the batter)

Mix together the oats and beer and let them soak for at least 1/2 hour, preferable a whole hour.

Preheat the oven to 350. Prepare a spring-form pan by greasing it and lining it with some parchment paper.

Cream the butter and sugars, and then beat in the eggs one at a time. Add the vanilla and zest. Mix the dry ingredients. Add them to the sugar-butter alternately oatmeal, starting and ending with dry. Fold in the apricots and optionally the walnuts. Pour into the prepared pan and bake about 40 minutes, or until firm in the middle.

For cream cheese frosting: beat together softened cream cheese and sugar of your choice (brown would be nice with this cake), adding sugar gradually until you get it as sweet as you'd like. Flavor with vanilla or whatever else you've got - we used amaretto, lemon zest would be nice too to make the cake more summery.