Gluten-Free Apricot Cakes with Sea Salted Almonds

Ingredients for 4 small cakes:

(cooking rings 6,5/7,5cm and a springform pan 18cm)

Dough:
30g butter
100g honey
50g sugar
1 egg
100g rice flour
1 tl/tsp gingerbread seasoning
1 tl/tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
50g ground almonds

Apricot Filling:
200g apricot jelly or jam
3g agar-agar (or another gelling agent)

Topping:
100g marzipan (you can buy it already rolled out)
grounded pink pepper
4 little rosemary sprigs

Sweet & Salty Almonds:
50g almonds
1 egg white
sugar + salt

Dough:

1. Preheat oven to 160 C degrees (fan assisted; or 180 degrees top/bottom heat).
2. Melt the butter in a pot, add the honey and sugar and stir until everything is dissolved. Let the mixture cool off for a while, put it into a mixing bowl and stir in the egg.
3. Mix in a separate bowl rice flour, gingerbread seasoning, baking powder and salt and sieve the flour-mixture to the egg-butter-bowl (in 3 parts) and stir. Then fold in the ground almonds.
4. Line the bottom of the springform pan with parchment paper and grease the sides. Fill the dough into the springform pan and bake for 25-35 minutes until the dough is done.
5. Let cool off about 10min, then take off the cake from the springform pan and let cool down completely on a cooling rack.
6. Cut out small circles with the cooking rings and cut the top even. Put them back upside down into the cooking rings, place them on an even plate and press the dough a bit down at the sides, so the jelly cannot run down the sides.

Apricot Jelly:

1. Mix a bit agar-agar (approximately 3g for 250ml liquid – look at the package instructions) with the jelly and add a bit of water (about 4 tbsp), bring to boil, cook for 1 minute and spread the jelly carefully into the cooking rings.
2. Leave the cakes for at least 1 hour in the fridge (the jelly has to be firm), then push the cakes carefully out of the cooking rings.

Sweet & Salty Almonds:

1. Preheat the oven to 175 C degrees top/bottom heat. Roast the almonds in a pan from both sides. Whisk a bit an egg white and toss the almonds in it.
2. Line a baking sheet with baking paper and spread some salt and sugar on the paper. Place the almonds on it and spread more sugar and salt on top. Bake the almonds for 5 minutes and take them off for cooling down.

Marzipan Top & Decoration:

1. Roll out the marzipan (you can spread a bit icing sugar on your worktop). Cut out marzipan-circles with the cooking rings, arrange them on the jelly and press on lightly.
2. Sprinkle with some freshly ground pink pepper. Top with the sweet & salty almonds and a rosemary sprig.