Kitchen Organizer

This is a seriously rich & decadent cake that I think is totally worth the effort and calories!  The apricot flavour is so delicious & the the hazelnut meal gives it that smooth texture.  As you can see, I made it to celebrate our recently-formed Mainly Music group and it was a hit!  I actually just made chocolate buttercream for the icing, rather than the one I've copied below.  You'll love this one!

Ingredients

1 2/3 cup dried apricots

1/2 cup water

250g butter, softened

2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar

6 eggs

1 cup plain flour

1/2 cup self-raising flour

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1 cup ground hazelnuts

2/3 cup buttermilk

Chocolate buttermilk cream

300g milk eating chocolate, chopped

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 cup icing sugar

Method

Combine apricots and the water in small saucepan; bring to the boil.  Reduce heat; simmer, covered, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes or until apricot is soft.  Cool.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius.  Grease deep 22cm round cake pan; line base with baking paper.

Beat butter and sugar in small bowl with electric mixer until light and fluffy.  Beat in eggs, one at a time.  Transfer mixture to large bowl; stir in apricot mixture, sifted flours and cocoa, ground hazelnuts and buttermilk, in two batches.  Spread mixture into pan.

Bake cake about 1 3/4 hours.  Stand cake in pan 10 minutes before turning, top-side up, onto wire rack to cool.

Make chocolate buttermilk cream: Stir chocolate and buttermilk in small heatproof bowl over small saucepan of simmering water until smooth; store in sifted icing sugar.  Refrigerate, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes or until mixture is spreadable.

Split cold cake into three layers; sandwich layers with two-thirds of the buttermilk cream.  Spread top of cake with remaining buttermilk cream.  Top with dark chocolate curls.