Figgy pudding is a rich, luscious dessert that makes the ideal end to your Christmas feast. This figgy pudding recipe is baked in a fluted tube pan, despite being normally steamed or boiled. Every bite is enhanced by the fruity flavor of orange zest, orange marmalade, and orange flavoring. Before cutting the cake, drizzle it with a sweetened glaze or top each piece with a dollop of whipped cream.
| Prep Time: | 15 mins |
| Cook Time: | 1 hr 25 mins |
| Additional Time: | 10 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 50 mins |
| Servings: | 14 |
| Yield: | 1 bundt cake |
Ingredients
- 1 ¾ cups buttermilk
- 12 ounces dried Calimyrna figs, coarsely chopped
- 1 ½ cups white whole-wheat flour (such as King Arthur®)
- 1 cup white sugar
- 2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3 eggs
- 1 ½ cups dry bread crumbs
- ½ cup butter, melted
- 1 (2.45 ounce) package sliced almonds
- 3 tablespoons orange marmalade
- 1 tablespoon grated orange zest
- ½ teaspoon orange-vanilla flavoring (such as Fiori di Sicilia® (Optional)
Instructions
- Gather all ingredients.
- Allrecipes/Oana Ennis
- Gently heat buttermilk and figs in a saucepan over medium-low heat until softened, 10 to 15 minutes; set aside until cool.
- Allrecipes/Oana Ennis
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a tube pan. Grease one side of a sheet of aluminum foil.
- Allrecipes/Oana Ennis
- Sift flour, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg, cinnamon, and salt together into a bowl.
- Allrecipes/Oana Ennis
- Beat eggs in a separate, large bowl with an electric mixer on high speed for 1 minute. Add the cooled fig and buttermilk mixture, bread crumbs, melted butter, almonds, orange marmalade, orange zest, and orange-vanilla flavoring; beat on low speed until blended.
- Allrecipes/Oana Ennis
- Gradually mix in the sifted flour mixture until just incorporated.
- Allrecipes/Oana Ennis
- Spoon batter into the prepared pan and cover with the greased foil.
- Allrecipes/Oana Ennis
- Bake in the preheated oven until firm and pulling away from sides of the pan, 1 hour 15 minutes to 2 hours.
- Allrecipes/Oana Ennis
- Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Turn out onto a wire rack.
- Fiori di Sicilia is a floral orange flavoring used in Italian Pandoro. Although not absolutely necessary for this recipe, I thought it added an exotic flavor to the dessert.
Reviews
This is not the recipe for Figgy Pudding…I’m sure it’s okay & it was very nice for this person to share it with us, BUT for those of you who now think you’ve had Figgy Pudding-you haven’t. Figgy Pudding is enriched with alcohol…or topped with a hard sauce of either Brandy or Rum. Thus, the referencing in the song “Oh, bring us a figgy pudding and a cup of good cheer…” that’s what they’re asking for…cake with alcohol & “a cup of good cheer” –more alcohol. Figgy Pudding is similiar to Fruitcake with several dried or candied fruits & then the Brandy or Rum enhances these flavors.
Unfortunately this figgy pudding recipe was not liked by anyone in my family. I followed the instructions as written except for one alteration which was decreased cooking time to 1.5 hours, as some reviewers have suggested. Yet the pudding was still on the side of dry and slightly overcooked. Maybe a decreased amount of whole wheat flour would have helped, however the flavors were not enticing enough for me to try again.
Good taste. However, the 2 hours recommended time is a bit long, IMHO. The “cake” was very dark, black in places, and one can’t really tell how done it is because of the cover on the pan. If I make it again, I will have to experiment on the bake timing. Like I said, it does taste really good.
A very good tasting pudding. It’s like a thick, moist cake
I thought about taking the pudding out after 90 minutes but did not. After 2 hours, it resembles a very tasty brick. Should have read the reviews first and adjusted. Once I get past the 3/16 inch crust, the inside is delicious if a little dry. By the way, my oven runs a little slow, so next time, I’ll start checking at 60 minutes and see what happens.
Deliciously moist cake! Would also agree bake time was closer to 45 minutes at 350. It’s not too sweet so add more sugar or better yet more marmalade if you’d like. Definitely bump up the orange zest. I used all purpose white flour and it was great. If you like fig newton cookies you’ll love this cake.
The two-hour bake time is w-a-a-a-y too long for this. The first cake I made was burned and as hard as a brick. I had to throw it away (oh, all those good ingredients). And, yes, my oven temperature is correct, and it was baked on the middle rack of the oven. I made a second one and took it out at 1 hour, 35 minutes. It, too, had a burned crust. I removed the crust and sliced the cake in thin wedges for an event. The cake flavor, minus the burned crust, was very good.
Well, now when some asks me if I have every had Figgy Pudding, I can answer “yes”. All in all a time consuming recipe, nothing special, nothing “to write home about”:. But I did enjoy it. Doubt I will every make again. Just because it’s time consuming.
We made this because my son wanted to try Figgy Pudding and see what it was all about. We only baked it for an hour and 15 minutes and it was a little overdone. But otherwise it came out well. We made a sweet lemon glaze for it.
I decided to try this for something different from pumpkin pie. I was surprised at the density of the batter, but it was super yummy. I ended up baking less than the 1 1/2 hours and still barely got it out. Know your ovens, people! Will definitely make again, and even have it eith butter rum sauce.
Why would you cook this for 2 hours!? The ingredients are delightful but I ended up with a delightfully burnt cake. Very disappointed.
Yum. Tastes like homemade Fig Newtons.
Hard time finding figs in my neck of the woods. It is different, but good. Reminded me of fruit cake. Next time I will make a fruit cake with it as the base. WIll make again.
I followed the recipe exactly. My family loved it. I flavored the heavy whipped cream with Amaretto. This will definitely be a Christmas tradition from now on!
When I gently warmed the figs in buttermilk it immediately curdled. Did anyone else have this happen? Since I didn’t have enough figs to re do this I added it anyway and believe it or not the cake still tasted great. If I ever made this again I would actually put in a water bath perhaps or at least take it out sooner. It never pulled away from the sides of the pan so I kept it in two hours which maybe is why it was not very moist.
I made this, it came out well, but it was overdone, slightly burnt, and I took it out of the oven early. I noticed in other comments that people reduced cooking time as much as 30 minutes. This leads me to a question. What is the size of the tube pan used in the original recipe? I suspect the dimensions of the pan make a difference in cooking time. My tube pan is 10″ h x 3 1/2″ H.
Really easy and really good. I honestly made this almost as a joke but when I saw the reviews I was really excited and was not let down. My biggest concern was that I wouldn’t be able to find the ingredients… I mean who’s heard of calimyra figs? I easily found them at Trader Joe’s and they were delicious.
Overdone at 1.5 hours. No one had ever seen a figgy pudding. All the people who tried it, liked it.
We made the recipe as directed and it was a big hit. We served it at a family gathering and at tea for our British neighbors and it was declared delicious.
This is a very good recipe. I have always been interested in “what is figgy pudding”? It certainly is a cake rather than a pudding.. I made a few changes, 6 oz. of figs and 6 oz. of dates, lemon zest as well as orange zest, and orange oil and vanilla . I read other reviews that the cake only needs to be cooked for 90 minutes instead of 2 hours. It’s true, I cooked it for 90 minutes and it was done plenty good, in fact it was starting to burn around the edges. I made a cream cheese rum frosting using rum extract ( frosting a little thin) to put on the cake after the cake cooled.
Followed the recipe and it turned out great!