This fig and olive oil cake is sophisticated and delicious. It’s fancy enough I would serve it at a all adults dinner party but delicious enough that my kids actually devour it! My 7 year old loves the olive oil cake and but picks off the figs but I will take that as a win. The cake it’s self has a lovely lemon and olive oil taste and I absolutely love the texture of olive oil cakes.
This cake goes wonderful with some vanilla ice cream or would taste just as delicious with a lemon glaze drizzled on top for balance to the sweetness and to cut through the fat from the olive oil. Figs are mainly sweet, not a lot of contrast to their flavor so the lemon and olive oil in this cake help build dimension with this cake.
The figs for this cake came from my mother in laws tree and she kindly gave me a few while traveling through town the other day. They are such a short seasoned fruit but I love when they are ripe and I get to enjoy them.
I love to use figs in savory dishes too because they balance really well with some salt and acidity, one of my recipes is fig, bacon and feta stuffed sweet potatoes, that recipe is here.
What you need to make fig and olive oil cake:
Makes 1 – 9 inch cake or 1 – 8×8 cake
- 5 figs – sliced into rounds
- 11/2 cups flour
- 1 1/4 cups sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- zest of 1 lemon
- 1 cup olive oil
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
Optional Lemon Glaze:
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon water
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F..
- Line baking dish with parchment paper and spray with cooking oil.
- Lay fig pieces on bottom of pan.
- In a bowl, add flour, sugar, salt and baking powder and stir together.
- Add lemon zest, olive oil, egg, milk and lemon juice and blend well, a thick batter will form.
- Pour batter over figs and bake for ~35-37 minutes or until the center is risen and isn’t giggly anymore.
- Let cake cool then flip cake over and serve upside down with some ice cream or a lemon glaze on top.
To make the lemon glaze:
- Mix ingredients all together and spoon over the cake.
Fig and Olive Oil Cake
Ingredients
- 5 figs – sliced into rounds
- 11/2 cups flour
- 1 1/4 cups sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- zest of 1 lemon
- 1 cup olive oil
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- Optional Lemon Glaze:
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon water
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F..
- Line baking dish (a 9 inch round or an 8 x 8 pan) with parchment paper and spray with cooking oil.
- Lay fig pieces on bottom of pan.
- In a bowl, add flour, sugar, salt and baking powder and stir together.
- Add lemon zest, olive oil, egg, milk and lemon juice and blend well, a thick batter will form.
- Pour batter over figs and bake for ~35 minutes or until the center is risen and isn’t giggly anymore.
- Let cake cool then flip cake over and serve upside down with some ice cream or a lemon glaze on top.
- To make the lemon glaze:
- Mix ingredients all together and spoon over the cake.