- Hey guys.
Today I'm gonna show you
how to make what can only be described
as a fabulous fig cake.
This cake is so delicious and perfect
for entertaining in the fall.
It has this delicate interior mixed
with this crunchy crumble, and then of course,
those sweet plump figs baked into the center of it.
It's a perfect little breakfast treat
for either a Sunday brunch or to serve at tea time too.
Let me show you how to put it together.
I really love to bake breakfast cakes in cheesecake pans
because you get a really elegant cake that way
and they're so easy to remove and then put on a cake stand
which makes them all the more elegant.
So we're just gonna spray our pan lightly
with some baking spray and then you can set that aside.
And then we are going to make our batter.
So in a large bowl, you're going
to add three eggs, a cup of vegetable oil.
Now you could use butter, but I find with this cake,
the oil makes this cake so extra moist.
Half a cup of white sugar and a half a cup of brown sugar.
A half a cup of water and a teaspoon
and a half of vanilla extract.
You can whisk that all up just until everything is combined
and then you can set it aside.
And then in a smaller bowl,
we're going to whisk together all of our dry ingredients.
So we're gonna add two cups of all purpose flour.
Two teaspoons of baking powder.
Three quarters teaspoon of salt
and a teaspoon and a quarter of ground cardamom.
Now cardamom is a really delicious warming spice
that you can get just in your spice aisle
of your local grocery store.
It has this beautiful, almost like perfumed flavor to it.
It adds a really nice little background touch
in a cake like this, but if you can't find it,
you could replace it with a teaspoon of ground cinnamon
and a quarter teaspoon of ground cloves.
So then you can whisk that all up and then you're gonna add
these dry ingredients to your wet ingredients.
I like to just use a whisk, being gentle,
not to over mix so that our cake remains nice and light,
and then I also like to add a third of a cup
of roughly chopped candy ginger.
Now candy ginger is also known sometimes
as crystallized ginger.
Sometimes you can find it in your spice aisle.
It will come in a jar or in health food stores,
you can also buy it in bulk.
So you can stir that up
and now our cake batter is ready to go
and you can pour it into your prepared cheesecake pan
and then just set that aside,
and then the next thing we're gonna do is add our figs.
Now I'm using black mission figs,
which is a pretty common variety
you can find in most supermarkets.
Now I have to be honest,
this cake actually started out being a pear crumble cake.
But the day that I was making it,
my parents stopped by with a huge bag of fresh figs
that had come from their neighbors yard.
It was spectacular.
After I made it with the figs,
I just, I couldn't imagine it any other way.
It just was so delicious with the figs.
So you can use figs.
If you don't want to use figs, you could also use the pears.
That would also be good.
That was the original idea.
Or you could also use sliced apples.
I think that would be another great way to go.
Then you can set this aside while you make the crumble.
And the crumble is super simple to put together.
So in a small bowl, you wanna add a half a cup of flour.
A half a teaspoon of baking powder,
and this will help our crumble kind of puff up a little bit,
and two tablespoons of brown sugar.
Two tablespoons of white sugar
and a quarter teaspoon of ground cinnamon.
And then you wanna whisk that all up
and then you're gonna add five tablespoons of melted butter.
And you just combine that
either with a fork or a small whisk
and you'll start to see a beautiful crumble will form.
And then at that point,
you're gonna add half a cup of roughly chopped walnuts.
And you can stir that together.
And then you're just gonna take your crumble
and sprinkle it all over the top of the cake.
Making sure it's well covered,
and then you are going to place this
in a 350 degree Fahrenheit oven
for anywhere from 50 minutes to an hour.
It does take that long for the cake
to bake all the way through
because it is a lot of batter going into a deep pan.
And then I do like to take a sharp knife
and just run it around the perimeter of the cake
just to loosen any of the baked fig
that might have stuck to the side.
And then when you release the spring form,
you'll see how high and beautiful
this cake turned out to be.
And then to transfer it onto a cake stand,
I like to use one of those little cake lifters
just to take it off that metal pan on the bottom.
I just think it looks prettier when you can take
the whole cake and put it on your cake stand.
I hope you guys give this one a try
and let me know what you think.
I also wanna know what fruit you decided on.
Did you go with the figs
or did you try the pears or the apples?
Let me know in the comments
and I'll see you back here next week.
Until then, bye.