Walnut Cake with Apricot Sauce

This is a lovely, nutty coffee cake that will win you raves. Laced through with walnuts and topped with a sweetly tart apricot sauce, you are the only one who will know this cake is a healthy dessert.

Makes 8-10 servings

Ingredient List:

Sauce

• 6-8 fresh apricots, halved, pitted, diced
• 1 cup dried apricots, diced
• 3 tablespoons brown rice syrup
• ¼ cup fresh orange juice
• 1/4 cup unsweetened organic almond or soy milk
• pinch sea salt
• grated zest of 1 lemon

Walnut Cake

• 2 ½ cups sprouted whole wheat flour or whole wheat pastry flour
• 4 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon allspice
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• generous pinch sea salt
• 1 tablespoon grain coffee, dissolved in 1 cup hot spring or filtered water
• ½ cup avocado oil
• 2/3 cup brown rice syrup
• 1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1-2 cups unsweetened organic almond or soy milk
• 2 tablespoons finely grated fresh ginger
• ½-2/3 cup coarsely minced walnut pieces

Step By Step Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350F and lightly oil and flour a standard bundt pan or two 6-mold giant muffin tins (to make individual cakes).

Prepare the sauce by combining all the ingredients in a heavy sauce pan over medium heat. Bring sauce to a boil, uncovered. Cover, reduce heat to low and cook until dried apricots are soft, about 25 minutes.  
Remove cover and continue to cook until the sauce thickens slightly. Set aside to cool.

Prepare the cakes by whisking together flour, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, baking powder/soda and sea salt. Mix in dissolved grain coffee, oil, rice syrup and vanilla. While mixing, slowly stir in soymilk, to create a smooth, spoonable batter. Fold in fresh ginger and walnut pieces, incorporating them through the batter.  

Spoon batter evenly into prepared pan and bake until the top springs back to the touch, 35-45 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to stand for about 10 minutes before loosening the cake from the pan sides with a butter knife and inverting it onto a plate to cool completely.

To serve, simply place a wedge of cake on an individual dessert plate and spoon sauce over top