Fig, Yogurt, and Almond Cake with or without Extra Figs

Here it is! Our first guest blog post my sister, you know the one who cracked the king cake icing code, wrote and I could squeal with delight. Fresh fig juice caramelizes around the edges of this almond cake, creating the perfect crispy pillowy contrast.

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If you have siblings, you know the oldest child and the middle child approach life differently. This includes the way they cook. I’m a recipe follower. I like to trust the experts and think you should make a recipe as intended at least once before making substitutions or changes. Nicole, on the other hand, treats recipes as more of a suggestion.

This is why when I made Ottolenghi’s Fig, Yogurt, and Almond cake for the first time, I found myself grinding star anise in a coffee grinder. The recipe called for ground star anise and I’ve never seen such a thing, nor did my local Harris Teeter carry it. I did, however, have whole star anise on hand. I wasn’t about to make a substitution in a recipe I was making for the first time!

I tried using the end of my French rolling pin as a mortar and pestle to crush the anise. The only thing this tactic accomplished was scattering shards of star anise all over my kitchen. For my next attempt I used the coffee grinder. The results were much better but still not as fine as I would have liked. The point is to be careful here and splurge for the already ground star anise if you can. Cracking a tooth is a good way to ruin an otherwise delicious cake.

This was my first time making an Ottolenghi recipe, and I can see why a free-wheeling cook like Nicole is a fan of his. While the cake turned out great, the recipe was a bit short on the details for a recipe follower like me. For example, it suggests a red wine fig sauce to top the cake but doesn’t suggest any particular type of red wine. Cue going down the internet rabbit hole of “red wine that pairs well with figs.” In the end I headed to the Culture Shop (wine and cheese shop in Charlotte) to get their suggestions. 

Trust the experts and go with a blend that’s not too dry. I wound up with the Patriot Red Blend from Eola Hills in Oregon. It wasn’t my favorite for drinking, but it was absolutely perfect with the figs.

Knowing when the cake was done was also a challenge. It’s impossible to nail something like bake time when working with a fruit that’s inherently inconsistent in size and moisture content. The recipe calls for 12 figs, but I could only fit about 7 of the huge O’Rourke’s I was using on my cake. My figs were also fresh off-the-tree juicy, which resulted in the cake taking far longer to bake than the recipe estimated. I went a solid 30 minutes over the suggested time. Even then, another 5 minutes wouldn’t have been a bad idea.

The edges were looking a bit dark, and I was afraid of overbaking. Nothing’s worse than a dry and crumbly cake. The result was the perfect combination of crispy edges and soft in the middle. The inside of the cake was pillowy soft, while the fig juice that ran down the edges caramelized for a sweet crunch around the edges.

One last note – Ottolenghi suggests serving the cake with a dollop of Greek yogurt. While I didn’t hate it that way, if you’ve got a sweet tooth like me, I’d opt for ice cream or whipped cream instead. Don’t skip the red wine sauce on top. If you want to get real crazy, a sprinkle of candied nuts on top would be a nice addition.

INGREDIENT CONVERSIONS

Ottelenghi lives in the UK and his recipe doesn’t have American conversions. Baking’s a science as much as it’s an art, and I highly recommend using the original weight measurements provided in Ottolenghi’s original recipe. Weighing your ingredients when baking leads to far more predictable results. For those who don’t have a kitchen scale handy, the weighed ingredients are converted to volume measurements below.

• 200g unsalted butter = 2 sticks or 1 cup

• 200g granulated sugar, plus 1 tsp extra = 1 cup + 1 tsp for sprinkling on top

• 180g ground almonds = 1.8 cups (I used almond flour instead of grinding my own)

• 100g plain flour = 1 cup all-purpose flour

• 100g Greek yogurt = 1 cup (Ottolenghi doesn’t specify, but I recommend whole milk only)

PS (from the middle child). Because middle children love to give credit, the oldest child grew the figs from a cutting our dad made from one of his trees. 

Fig, Yogurt, Almond Cake with or without Extra Figs Ingredients

This recipe is from Ottolenghi’s website.
200g unsalted butter
200g caster sugar, plus 1 tsp extra
3 large free-range eggs
180g ground almonds
100g plain flour
½ tsp salt
Scraped seeds of ½ vanilla pod or ½ tsp vanilla paste
1 tsp ground star anise
100g Greek yogurt
12 figs

For the extra figs:
3 tbsp caster sugar
6 tbsp red wine
6 ripe figs, quartered
Greek yogurt

Fig, Yogurt, Almond Cake with or without Extra Figs Directions
Heat the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6. Line the bottom and sides of a 24cm loose-based cake tin with baking parchment. Put the butter and sugar in an electric mixer bowl, and use a beater to work them well until they turn light and pale. Beat the eggs lightly, then, with the machine on medium speed, add them gradually to the bowl, just a dribble at a time, adding more only once the previous addition is fully incorporated. Once all the egg is in, mix together the almonds, flour, salt, vanilla and anise, and fold into the batter. Mix until the batter is smooth, then fold in the yogurt.

Pour the batter into the lined tin and level roughly with a palette knife or a spoon. Cut each fig vertically into four long wedges, and arrange in circles on top of the cake, just slightly immersed in the batter. Bake for 15 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 170C/340F/gas mark 3 and continue baking until it sets - about 40-45 minutes longer. Check this by inserting a skewer in the cake: it's done if it comes out clean. Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to cool down before taking it out of the tin and sprinkling with a teaspoon of caster sugar.

You can eat the cake just as it is, but the addition of warm, syrupy figs turns it into something very special. Once the cake is cool enough, divide it into portions. Put three tablespoons of caster sugar in a medium saucepan and put on a high heat until the sugar starts to caramelize. Remove from the heat, carefully add the wine - it will spit a bit - then return to the heat and let the caramel dissolve in the wine. Add the fig quarters and quickly toss them around just to warm them up. Spoon a generous dollop of Greek yogurt over each slice of cake, plus a few warm figs and their juice.