Apricot Upside Down Cake

Recipe by: Mark Reid

For the sugar syrup:

Preheat the oven to 180ºC fan force. Line the base with a circle of greaseproof paper.
For the sugar syrup, combine all ingredients in a pot over low heat. Stir until all the sugar is dissolved. Set aside.
Pour the sugar syrup at the base of a loose-bottomed deep 8”/23cm cake tin. Place the thyme on the syrup base and scatter the apricot around the base, curve side down, until covered.
In a large bowl or using a free-standing mixer, beat together the butter, 250g of the sugar, the vanilla pod and the zest from one orange. Beat until light and fluffy.
Turn the mixer down to slow speed and gradually add the beaten egg until all combined. Sift together flour and baking powder then add to the mixer with the ground almonds. Finally, fold the yoghurt into the cake batter.
Spoon the cake batter on top of the apricot and orange base, filling the tin.
Bake in the middle of the preheated oven for between 45 – 60 minutes or when a cake skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.
Remove from the oven and allow the cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before carefully turning out onto a cooling rack.