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I just couldnāt resist.
There they were, just sitting next to the blueberries at the grocery storeā¦
Fresh Figs!
(jump to the recipe here if you are impatient) š
Here in the Mid-West, it is very hard to find exotic fruits at a normal grocery store. So, when the opportunity to make something with an exotic fruit presents itself, I just canāt pass it up.
So, I had to buy them.
I brought them home, put them in the fridge, and immediately started looking for the perfect recipe.
I could swear up and down that I have 10 books with fresh fig recipes in them, but when I actually looked, I found 3 recipes in two books.
The good newsā¦ I did not spend five hours agonizing over my recipe choices.
It may have been about two hours though.
ā¦
I decided on a Fresh Fig Cake recipe from the book āAfternoon Teaā by Eric Lanlard.
This is such a fun recipe book because there are so many unique tea party recipes to try. (The other fresh fig recipe in the book was a savory macaron.)
I was definitely happy with the results!
The first step was to add my eggs to powdered sugar and whip them.
It said they should be light and airy, so after getting them initially blended, I just turned on the stand mixer and let it go.
When I could see a marked increase in volume and a definite color change, I decided the eggs were ready.
Then the flour and ground almond mixture was folded into the eggs.
This was a lot like folding ground almonds into a meringue when making macarons.
Once all the flour and ground almonds were mixed in, melted butter was added to the batter.
The recipe calls for a 9-in springform pan. My springform pan was located a round-trip of one hour away, so I decided to try it in an 8-in round pan.
The fresh fig halves were arranged on top of the batter and into the oven it went.
It took longer than the recipe said it would to bake, but I was not surprised since the cake was thicker due to the smaller diameter of the pan.
While the cake started to cool, I was supposed to make the orange-cinnamon-brown sugar syrup that goes on top of the cake.
It took me longer than I expected to make the syrup, so next time I will start it while the cake is in the oven.
I gave the cake a good brushing with the syrup before I took it out of the pan.
Of course, I messed the top of the cake up a little while taking it out (thus the need for the springform), but after adding more syrup it was not as noticeable.
If the cake had been warmer, I think the syrup would have absorbed better. As it was, I did not end up using all of the syrup.
I do regret this. It was delicious. I am still trying to think what else to use it on.
Just before serving, I added powdered sugar to the edges of the cake to dress it up.
Once we cut into it, it did not last long!
I highly recommend checking out this amazing book of Afternoon Tea recipes, along with the authorās other cookbooks. He also did a 10-episode series called Baking Mad that is available on Amazon Prime Video.
Letās see what my next impulse fruit purchase will produce. š
Until then,
–Angie
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Fresh Fig Cake
Notes
Recipe adapted from: Afternoon Tea by Eric Lanlard
Ingredients
For the Cake:
- 125g (4.5 oz.) unsalted butter, melted, plus extra for greasing
- 4 eggs
- 150g (5.5 oz.) powdered sugar plus extra for dusting
- 100g (3.5 oz.) plain flour
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 150g (5.5 oz.) ground almonds
- 9 just ripe fresh figs, halved
For the Syrup:
- 200mL (7 fl. oz.) orange juice
- 70g (2.5 oz.) golden caster sugar or light brown sugar
- 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
Instructions
For the Cake:
- Preheat the oven to 350 F/180 C. Grease a 9 in. (23 cm) diameter springform cake pan and line with baking paper.
- In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and icing sugar together until pale and fluffy.
- Sift the flour and baking powder together then fold in with the almonds.
- Add the melted butter and mix together until smooth.
- Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and level the top.
- Arrange the figs, cut sides up, over the surface.
- Bake in the oven for 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes.
For the Syrup:
- Once the cake is out of the oven, put the orange juice, caster sugar, and cinnamon into a small saucepan and heat over a low heat for 10 minutes until they form a syrup.
- Pour over the slightly warm cake and leave to cool completely.
- Remove the cake from the tin and lightly dust with powdered sugar to finish.
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