Fresh-Fig Cake With Honey Cream-Cheese Frosting
This dense and deeply figgy cake, adapted from Eli's Table in Manhattan, gets its complex flavor from a combination of fresh figs and fig jam, seasoned generously with cinnamon, cardamom and ginger. It’s then filled and topped with cream cheese frosting that is sweetened with a combination of confectioners’ sugar for lightness and honey for richness. Over all, it’s a bit like carrot cake, except softer and sweeter. You can make the cake two to three days ahead and store it, well wrapped or under a cake dome, in the refrigerator. It gets even moister as it sits. If you can’t get fresh figs, chopped peeled apple works nicely as a substitute.
- Total:
- Serves: 12 persons
Ingredients
- Butter, for greasing the pan
- 3cups/384 grams all-purpose flour, more for flouring the pan
- 1teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½teaspoon ground ginger
- ½teaspoon ground cardamom
- ¾teaspoon baking soda
- ½teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 ½cups/300 grams granulated sugar
- 4large eggs
- ¾cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 2tablespoons buttermilk or plain yogurt
- ¾cup/116 grams chopped fresh figs (3 to 4 figs)
- ¾cup/225 grams fig jam
- ¾cup/85 grams chopped pecans or walnuts
- 12tablespoons/180 grams unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), softened
- 2cups/16 ounces/454 grams cream cheese, softened
- ¼teaspoon fine sea salt
- 3tablespoons/60 grams honey
- 1teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 ⅔cups/450 grams confectioners’ sugar
- 1cup sliced fresh figs (about 5 figs)
Instructions
Step 1
Make the cake: Heat oven to 325 degrees. Butter and flour a 10-inch cake pan (or two 9-inch pans), and line the bottom with parchment paper.Step 2
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, baking soda and salt.Step 3
Using an electric mixer, whisk to combine sugar and eggs until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Whisk in oil and buttermilk or yogurt to combine.Step 4
Using a rubber spatula, gently fold dry ingredients into egg mixture just until combined. Fold in figs, jam and pecans.Step 5
Scrape into prepared cake pan and bake until browned and springy to the touch, about 65 to 75 minutes (or 35 to 45 minutes for the 9-inch pans). If the top gets too dark before the cake is finished baking, cover it with foil. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.Step 6
While cake is cooling, make the frosting: Using an electric mixer, beat butter, cream cheese and salt on low speed until smooth. Beat in honey and vanilla, then beat in confectioners’ sugar.Step 7
To assemble the cake, remove cooled cake from pan and peel off parchment paper. Slice cake in half horizontally, so you end up with 2 layers. (You don’t need to do this for the 9-inch cakes.) Spread half the frosting between the layers, sandwiching it. Dollop remaining frosting in a thick layer on top of the cake, leaving a 1-inch border on the top of the cake, the sides, bare. Chill until ready to serve. Just before serving, top with sliced figs.