Old French Fig Cake

My boyfriend’s cousin Val, who recommended the banana lime cake from a previous post, also suggested that we try the Old French Fig Cake out of the same book.  She’s brought over a slice of one that she’d made and we decided that we had to give it a try to have with our morning tea.

I have to admit that I’ve never cooked with figs.  I’ve had plans to use them several times but always buy the figs and then forget about them until it’s too late and they are ridden with mold.  This time was different.  We bought some beautiful figs from the weekend market to use in the cake – the recipe calls for 225g but Val recommended that we used more so we threw in a few extra.

The dough ends up being very thick and cooks on low heat for a long time, which is typical of old fashioned cake recipes.

It’s very sweet and drier than a dessert cake, which makes it perfect for morning tea.

Old French Fig Cake Recipe adapted from Cake Bible

Ingredients

• 300g (10 oz) fresh ripe figs, chopped finely or minced
• 125g (4.4 oz) butter
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 egg, lighty beaten
• 3 2/3 cups plain flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp salt
• ½ Tsp grated lemon or orange zest
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• icing sugar, for dusting

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 150C (300F).  Lightly grease a 20cm (~8 in) cake tin and line the base with non-stick baking paper.

Place figs in a saucepan and simmer for 8 minutes.  Add butter and sugar and keep stirring over gentle heat until melted.  Allow to cool.

Stir egg into mixture.  Add sifted flour, baking powder, salt, zest, and vanilla extract.

Pour into prepared tin and bake for 60-90 minutes or until cake no longer sticks to a cake tester.

Dust with icing sugar.