artEncounter

Decadently rich, and perfect for a rice cooker. I used a recipe courtesy of allrecipes.com from Ruth Ann Stelfox, with a few minor changes.

For a 3-cup rice cooker:

Apricot Upside Down Cake

Ingredients:

360g jar of apricot halves
55g (1/4 cup) butter
110g (1/2 cup lightly packed) brown sugar
2 eggs, separated
135g (2/3 cup lightly packed) white granulated sugar
95g (2/3 cup) flour
1g (1/4 tsp) baking soda
15ml (1 tablespoon) + 5ml (1 tsp white vinegar)
2g (1/4 tsp) salt

1) Place the butter in the rice cooker pan, melt on the WARM setting for 5 minutes, or until melted.. Mix in brown sugar. Drain apricots, reserving 2 tbsp. juice. Layer apricots in a single layer, cut side up, on the brown sugar and butter mixture.

2) With chopsticks, beat egg yolks until lemony in color. Add white sugar, reserved apricot juice, and 1 tablespoon of vinegar, mix well.

3) In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix well, set aside.

4) Beat egg whites and 1tsp vinegar until soft peaks form. (see tip below)

5) Add flour mixture to egg yolk mixture, mix until just incorporated. Fold in egg whites (the rice cooker spatula works well for this). Pour over apricot mixture.

6) Bake on the highest temperature cycle (for my rice cooker, the fast rice cooking setting). May take less than a full cycle. Cake is done when a knife inserted comes out clean.

7) Carefully turn out onto a plate, enjoy!

(Egg white beating tips: Separate eggs when cold, then set the whites aside for 20 minutes or until room temperature. Beat egg whites in a copper or stainless steel bowl, and use either new or disposable chopsticks, or korean-style steel chopsticks. Or, a fork or an whisk, if you happen to have them. Plastic, wood and bamboo can have residual oils that can impede egg white fluffiness).