Fresh Fig Cake
- 2¾ cups sifted all-purpose flour
- 1½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup (1½ sticks) butter
- 1¼ cups raw sugar
- 3 extra-large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1½ cups coarsely chopped pecans
- ½ pound firm-ripe figs, washed, stemmed, and coarsely chopped
Instructions:
This dark and spicy cake puts those figs to good use along with Louisiana pecans and raw sugar.
- Preheat the oven to 350° F. Coat a 10-inch (12-cup) Bundt pan with nonstick oil-and-flour baking spray and set aside.
- Sift the flour, baking powder, soda, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, pepper, and salt onto a large piece of wax paper and set aside also.
- Cream the butter in an electric mixer at low speed for 5 minutes or until silvery and light. Add the sugar and cream at low speed for 3 minutes. Beat the eggs in one by one, then beat in the vanilla.
- With the mixer still at low speed, add the sifted dry ingredients alternately with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the dry. To avoid overbeating the batter, I add the dries in three batches, the buttermilk in two. By hand, fold in the pecans and figs.
- Scoop the batter into the prepared pan, spreading to the edge. Also rap the pan sharply on the counter two or three times to level the batter.
- Bake the cake in the lower third of the oven for about 1 hour or until it begins to pull from the sides of the pan, is nicely browned, and a cake tester inserted halfway between the rim and the center tube comes out clean.
- Cool the cake in the upright pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes; loosen around the edge with a small, thin-blade spatula; then invert on the rack and cool to room temperature.
- Cut into wedges and serve as is or top each portion with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a drift of whipped cream.