7 UP Apricot Upside-Down Cake

You are not going to believe how wonderful a couple bottles of 7UP and a bag of dried apricots can taste!  This old (from the 70’s)  Southern recipe comes from Lawyer Boy’s friend’s grandmother – a friend he made while he was living in Lafayette, LA one summer doing an Internship right after he finished that Ag Econ undergrad degree.  We visited him there and had just the best time driving to NOLA and driving through New Iberia and a couple other places.  I have always loved Louisiana (except for the humidity) but it was my husband’s first visit………now he loves it too!  Would you believe that Mr. Picky Eater himself ate Gumbo, Bread Pudding, AND Boudin at Prejean’s?  He ate Boudin!  (Pronounced Boo-Dan).  If it wasn’t so doggone labor intensive, I would make some but to make my life easier and until we visit Louisiana again, I will make do by ordering from Herbert’s (Pronounced A{long A} -Bear’s) – if someone has a really easy recipe for it, please share with me!  Okay back to this cake.

This was our first stop – my hair is already HUGE – you should have seen me later that day after a few light showers of rain!!

So, when we were there, we met this girl he was seeing – we were happy because we did not care for the one he had while in undergrad school – who introduced us to her grandmother’s cake that she brought over to the apartment. Now, I do not like apricots at all but I was raised right so I grabbed that dish of cake and dug right in like it was my favorite!  It was moist but fluffy and the apricots tasted good – what was happening???  Do they grow apricots differently in Louisiana?  No, they were from a bag of dried apricots she got at the store.  Knowing how much my mother and Top Girl like the fruit, I asked for the recipe without much thought as to me EVER making it…………and then four years later I decided to learn to cook so I put it in a safe place the next time I saw it, where it stayed completely lost until a couple of weeks ago when I pulled it out of my Beatles cookie jar.  I had put it in there in 2011 after finding it in a drawer with NOLA tourist info that I had put in there in 2007.  I don’t even remember the girl’s name now but I sure am glad I got this recipe because we love it and you will too!

7 UP Apricot Upside-Down Cake

Sauce Ingredients:

7 oz. of 7-Up
1 cup dried apricots
1/2 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar

Directions:
Simmer 7-Up with apricots 20 minutes.

Stir in butter and brown sugar and continue cooking to melt butter.

Spread sauce over the bottom of a 9×9 baking dish.  An iron skillet works great too! The original recipe called for a 9 x 13 Pyrex dish but I found it to be far to “thin” when covering that much room to make a good cake.

Cake Batter Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 1/4 cups sifted cake flour
2 12 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
7oz of 7-Up

3 egg whites, stiffly beaten
Directions:
Cream butter and sugar until fluffy.

Sift flour, baking powder and salt together stirring in alternately with 7-Up.

Fold in stiffly beaten egg whites.
Pour batter over sauce in baking pan.

Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, 45 minutes.

Set on wire rack for about 10  minutes to let cool a bit.

Invert and serve up-side down.

I’m not showing you the entire slice because I made real whipped cream but had to take the picture before the sun went down and the cake was still hot – so it was kind of melty on this piece……….still tasted great though!

This cake is so very good – you really must try it!  Enjoy!

Don’t forget the cookbook giveaway going on my Shoney’s Strawberry Pie post.  It’s open until March 12, 2015!

I am sharing most all my recipes at Weekend Potluck – why don’t you go over and check it out?  Great recipes!