A beautiful and spice-filled dense fig cake topped with an irresistible cream cheese frosting. This is a wonderful cake for a celebration (or just because)!
YOU GUYS. I have to tell you about this cake. I made it for my family for Mother’s Day (that’s how I roll – I like to make my own celebration meal!) and it was a huge hit.
I discovered the magic of figs fairly late in life, as fig newtons never really did it for me as a kid. Maybe it was the crunchy texture in the cookies that turned me off, but now I am a fig fan through and through. Fig jam is always at my house because that is the best jam flavor ever.
Well, I sacrificed some of my precious fig jam in order to make this cake. I had bought a jar of the jam at a farmer’s market in Pennsylvania the last time I visited my parents. Parts of the jam melted beautifully into the cake, while glorious chunks of it sunk to the bottom to provide a lovely fig-bottomed bite.
I topped my cake with a glorious layer of cream cheese frosting and smeared it in between the two layers as well. Feel free to double the cream cheese frosting so you can have a batch to taste test. I won’t tell!
Everyone in my family loved the cake. I have a feeling that I will be making this again since it was so incredible. The fall spices would make this a lovely fall cake as well, so maybe I will bake this for my birthday as well.
Fig cake with cream cheese frosting
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 and 1/2 cups fig preserves
- 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1 batch cream cheese frosting recipe below
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Generously grease and line two 8" pans and set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg and set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl if using a handheld mixer, mix together the eggs, sugar and oil on low speed until well combined. Slowly add in the buttermilk and vanilla. Then add in the fig preserves and applesauce.
- Slowly add in the dry ingredients and mix until everything just comes together. Evenly distribute the batter into your two pans and bake in your preheated oven for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centers come out clean.
- Allow the cakes to cool completely. You may want to level the cakes by slicing any domed pieces off with a serrated knife. These scraps are great for snacking!
- To assemble the cakes, place one cake layer on a cake plate or platter, cut side up. Add about 1/4 cup of frosting on top. Place the second layer of cake, cut side down, on top of the frosting. Cover the top and sides of the cake with the remaining cream cheese frosting.