The dried figs, walnuts, and toasty spices used in this fig cake recipe.
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 1 hr |
| Additional Time: | 15 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 35 mins |
| Servings: | 14 |
| Yield: | 1 10-inch cake |
Ingredients
- 1 pound dried figs
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ½ cup buttermilk
- 1 cup white sugar
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup chopped walnuts
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 10-inch tube pan.
- Place dried figs into a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a simmer over low heat and cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Drain figs, reserving 1/2 cup cooking liquid.
- Sift flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, and cloves into a bowl.
- Cut figs into 1/4-inch cubes. Combine buttermilk and reserved cooking liquid in a medium bowl.
- Beat sugar and butter in a large bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, then stir in vanilla. Beat in flour mixture alternately with buttermilk mixture, then stir in figs and walnuts. Pour into the prepared pan.
- Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, 50 to 60 minutes. Cool in pan for 15 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.
Reviews
Fantastic. I used defrosted purple and green figs from yard, and pecans instead of walnuts, and greek yogurt instead of buttermilk. Amazing and will do it again and again! Thanks!
Wow what a delicious cake I made it yesterday at work and the clients loved it …although I cut the sugar content by 20%.
I halved the recipe and accidently put too much baking soda (or maybe it was baking powder, I don’t remember anymore) And it turned out perfect, light, bouncy. I only baked it for 25mins since they were cupcakes. I used dried figs, sultanas and brown sugar. Will make again
Fantastic way to use figs that have been turning to cement in the pantry. I had to stew mine for several hours but they plumped up nicely. I used 0% Greek yoghurt instead of buttermilk and doubled the cinnamon. Delicious!
I followed the recipe as written except I used brown sugar. The flavor is good, fruity and not too sweet. It came out denser than I expected, more like a bread pudding. I paired it with a cream cheese icing.
Very good recipe, especially if you process the figs as various reviewers recommended. Moist and bursting with the taste of figs.
I love figs — fresh, dried, canned, preserved, you name it; when I purchased a package of dried figs recently, I found them drier than I like them. So, I looked for fig recipes and found this one. All the 5-star ratings caught my attention, and the reviews were very helpful. I took the advice of several bakers and puréed the figs in my small food processor after stewing them and used plain Greek yogurt instead of buttermilk because that’s what was in the fridge. I typically cut back a little on the sugar and used 3/4 cup instead of 1. Finally, I didn’t add nuts because my husband prefers without. Using a Bundt pan, I baked this cake for 50 minutes as directed. It is really delicious! My husband loves it, and I gave a piece to our 14-year-old granddaughter who was visiting. I didn’t tell her there were figs in the cake — just said it’s a spice cake (she’s very fussy). She ate it all up, every crumb! I will be making this cake again, for sure.
Absolutely luscious cake … I just cut the sugar to 3/4 cup. That brought the flavors of figs and spice out beautifully. I substituted the buttermilk with homemade watery yogurt . I baked the recipe in two loaf 8″ tins. I bake all my goodies in an LG microwave convection oven on convection mode. Baked this one for 50 minutes at 170deg C. Came out nice, brown and just right.
This cake is wonderful!! It does cook under 60 minutes though as it only took 50 in my oven. I am going to try and freeze it as I’ve read all the reviews but there is no mention of being able to freeze it. I will give it a try!
great recipe. I used my fresh frozen figs. I cut them in half and cooked for a small amount of time with small amount of water. I drained them and weighed out one pound. I used only 1/4 of the remaining fig juice. So nice to figure out how to use fresh frozen figs. Niki
I had a pound of dried figs that no one was eating in the pantry and wanted to make something sweet with them. I’m glad I picked this recipe because it made a perfect 5-star cake as written: moist but not mushy, flavorful but not overpowering, and the density was right on. The proportions are accurate, no need for adjustments.
It also works well with fresh figs!
I made this without any changes in recipe at all. I did use a double walled sheetcake pan instead of tube pan, worried about scorching with fruit…It came out absolute perfect. We all loved it. Imagine would also be good with dates…..
Excellent, moist cake. After making it once I decided to make a second, but discovered I was out of figs, so I used dates instead and doubled the spices. I preferred it with dates and more spice, but the original recipe is also fabulous, especially if you’re a big fig fan. Even better with ice cream.
Yum! I used fresh figs and it turned out great. I put a vanilla glaze on it and it was so good.
This was great! The only thing I changed was to use pecans instead of walnuts and I chopped my dates a bit finer (next time I’ll chop as finely as possible and maybe even use the pureed version that other reviewers mentioned.) I could see other fruits used in this but the figs are great. I’ll definitely make this again.
moist and delicious! i pureed the boiled figs as per others’ suggestions. baked 35 min in a brownie pan.
This cake is delicious! I didn’t have buttermilk so I squeezed the juice of one orange into the 1/2 cup of milk and it was amazing! The house smelled sooo good while it was baking too. Will definitely make this again! Thanks for sharing this recipe!
Yum! I cut the recipe in half,except for the spices, and added a little nutmeg. Put the figs in the processor and left out the nuts. Baked 20 min in an 8 inch glass baking dish. My daughter and I had some warm and it was great, but just as good for the next couple days. So moist:)……..just made this again, still cutting in half and keeping the spice measurements whole. Found this stores very well for several days in Tupperware on the counter. The spices seem to get stronger as it sits and a taster and I both thought that it tasted like a cross between a fig Neuton and gingerbread. Was good warm with some Haagen Dazs, too.
I checked on this at 45 minutes and it was done — if I’d have left it longer it would have burnt. The figs did burn a bit where they were touching the pan. I only had 3/4 pound of figs and I found them to be a tad too sweet as it was [and I’m not usually one to complain about things being too sweet], but the cake itself was great. I guess I’m not a huge fan of figs, but I did like the muffin-y texture. My husband and mother both said it was good. I love spiced cake, so I doubled the cinnamon and cloves, and added 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg as well. ////////// UPDATE Feb 2015: I tried again, this time using an immersion blender on the figs, subbing light sour cream for the buttermilk, using two whole eggs instead of just whites, and increasing the spices and leaving out the nuts like before. I’ve a new oven so this one baked perfectly in 50 minutes. I’ve decided that I definitely don’t like figs. But the cake was still good enough that I had several slices. My husband and mother liked it as much as before. I think I’ll try this modified recipe with a different dried fruit like cherries.
Really good – several people asked me for the recipe or to make it again. I too put the figs in a food processor, and made the cake in a bundt pan, and then in mini bundt pans the second time around. make sure you grease and flour the pan really well, the cake will stick a bit otherwise.