Fig and Almond Cake

By David Tanis

Published August 20, 2013

  • Karsten Moran for The New York Times
Media 1 of 1
Total Time
1 hour
Rating
5(1,910)
Comments
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Figs are baked into an almond batter for this rustic cake to have with coffee or tea. With figs, ripeness is everything. A ripe fig (the object of your desire) is soft, yielding, beginning to crack, nearly wrinkled. When you cut into it, the flesh is bright and juicy and the taste is ethereal.

Featured in: The Fig Now Yields Its Charms

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Ingredients

Yield:1 9-inch cake

  • 4 tablespoons butter, melted, plus butter for greasing pan

  • 1 cup natural raw almonds (not blanched)

  • ¼ cup sugar, plus 2 tablespoons for sprinkling

  • ¼ cup all-purpose flour

  • ½ teaspoon baking powder

  • ⅛ teaspoon cinnamon

  • ⅛ teaspoon salt

  • 3 eggs, beaten

  • 2 tablespoons honey

  • ½ teaspoon almond extract

  • 12 to 14 ripe figs

Ingredient Substitution Guide

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Heat oven to 375 degrees. Butter a 9-inch fluted tart pan or pie pan; set aside. Put almonds and ¼ cup sugar in a food processor and grind to a coarse powder. Add flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt; pulse to combine.

  2. Step 2

    In a mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, melted butter, honey and almond extract. Add almond mixture and beat for a minute until batter is just mixed. Pour batter into pan.

  3. Step 3

    Remove stem from each fig and cut in half. Arrange fig halves cut-side up over the batter. Sprinkle figs with sugar and bake for 30 minutes, until golden outside and dry at center when probed with a cake tester. Cool before serving.

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Ratings

5 out of 5
1,910 user ratings
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Comments

Mark R

Simple to make, and delicious. I substituted 3/4 cup of almond flour for the raw almonds, both to avoid having to grind them and because I had it on hand. The cake was moist and almondy and the figs were, well, perfectly figgy.

Robert

1 cup whole almonds weighs 152g, so when substituting with almond flour instead of whole nuts, use weight not volume.

brutallyfrank

I made it with small Italian plums and it was amazing! I sprinkled the plums with cinnamon and sugar before baking. The plums released a lot of juice but I let it sit in the pan awhile to reabsorb them. Definitely a keeper!

Msesf

Used 10" fluted tart pan, subbed 152 grams almond flour for ground almonds and added 1/2t cardamom, sprinkled 2 T Demerara sugar on top before baking; otherwise followed exact recipe, using 12 fresh black mission figs halved. Baked 30 mins at 375. Very easy and quick recipe. Looked and tasted great.

Julie

Can frozen figs be used? If so, defrost first or place frozen directly on top? I froze them a few weeks ago right after picking them.

Beverly Held

I needed a fig recipe and I'm so glad I happened upon this one. I didn't have enough raw almonds so AI told me I could substitute cashews, which I did - 3/4 C almonds; 1/4 C cashews. And then I didn't have any honey, AI told me I could substitute date syrup which I did have. With those two minor changes, I made a delicious cake. Somebody wrote that frozen slices thawed beautifully, so that's what I'm going to do.

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