F is for Fig Cake

Fig Newtons make me gag. They were the only fig experience available to a Kansas City kid, so I assumed I hated figs. Luckily, Erin Lusk didn’t tell me her mom had brought her famous Louisiana FIG Cake to SEA’s campus. She just gave me a plate and fork. What fruit sap was giving her miracle cake its density, depth, and … is that molasses? Prune? Ok, I guess I don’t hate figs.

 

 
 

A few years later I tasted a freshly picked fig from a friend's backyard. Ok, I guess I  really love figs. Who knew perfect, melon-y, mind-blowing figs grew abundantly in the District of Columbia? 

Mrs. Lusk’s Louisiana Fig Cake is one of my most-used recipes. I have witnessed a proliferation in varieties of fig preserves. Leftover preserves may be spread on ham and cheese sandwiches.

Louisiana Fig Cake

Ingredients

3 cups flour

2 cups sugar

1 tablespoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon cinnamon

3 eggs

1 cup peanut (or canola) oil

1-12 ounce jar of fig preserves

1 cup chopped pecans

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350°F and oil bundt pan.

2. In a large bowl, stir together first six ingredients. In a small bowl, mix together eggs and oil, and add to the dry ingredients. Stir together with fig preserves and chopped pecans until uniform, then transfer to bundt pan. The mixture will look like wet sand, the kind you might make drip sand castles out of.

3. Bake about 1 hour, until the cake collapses in on itself. This is perfectly normal. Allow the cake to cool completely. The cake can be difficult to remove, but with gentle prying it will release itself. Simple bundt pans (NOT like the one I used) or silpat pans help in this matter. 

 

Comments

[Savannah]

I heart this cake big time!!

[sergio]

Hello Chef bicicleta,

I love Figs, serously , when I was living in Paris, I used to buy in the morning a package of 150 grams of "Figolou" cookies with a a botle of milk, I also love it since my grandpa gave it to me all the time. This cake looks amazing, probably I will ask my Louisiana girl to cook it for me!!!

silla