Kindness, giving, sharing.. some of the things that food represents for me, as well as simply enjoying the tastes and smells.

Lovely Amy from Rhubarb Jumble kindly gave me some figs fresh from her tree, and I decided I would make a cake with some of them. I love fresh figs, but have never cooked with them, so this recipe was new to me. I’m really enjoying trying new things, as you might be able to tell by my other recent forays into baking.

I figured this would go a little better than the plum upside down cake… no soggy bottoms here.

For this cake I used the Ottolenghi fig, yogurt and almond cake recipe. I omitted the ground almonds so that my friend with a nut allergy could have some too, replacing with 100g of plain flour and one teaspoon of baking powder, just for that slight extra rise. I also added a little ground ginger, because why not.

The result was this beautifully deep cake, light and airy, but dense enough to hold shape even with the thinnest sliver.

What I really like about this cake, is that it isn’t too sweet, meaning the spices come through to the forefront. You could drizzle some honey on your slice, if you like things sweeter – it’s a perfect accompaniment to figs.

This is most definitely a cake I will make again and again. The batter would work well with so many different fruits – I’m already dreaming up the next bake.

I’ll keep you posted on that one.