Fig and Rose Cake

This is the fun part of doing a pantry challenge.  When odd ingredients turn into something other than stew or quiche, it's a fantastic win.

I don't remember where the other half of the package of figs went, probably into a mezze dinner.  And it's embarrassing to admit that I bought the rosewater before the pandemic.  Most of the searches for fig-and-rose-cake ended up with Persian Love Cake, which I have made without the figs.  I changed the search to cake-with-dried-figs and other options appeared.

I'm adapting a recipe from Martha Stewart.  It sounded too sweet, so halving the figs and subbing buttermilk was a solution.  Some comments said it was dense, so I'm subbing part of the flour with cake flour.  I do see how the original ingredients make it kind of like a big Welsh cake.  It won't be as light as a layer cake, but much lighter than a scone.  And of course, the lemon is being changed to rosewater.  The original recipe did not have any kind of frosting, but I thought a basic powdered-sugar glaze would be appropriate.

1/2 C olive oil, plus a bit for greasing the pan
*1/2 C buttermilk
1 egg
*2 tsp rosewater
1 C all-purpose flour
*1/2 C cake flour
3/4 C sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp kosher salt
*5 oz dried figs

1.  Preheat oven to 350º while you're chopping the figs into bite-sized pieces.  Make sure to remove the stem if the fig has one.  They don't soften when baked.  Grease a 10" tart pan with removable bottom with olive oil.  If you only have regular cake pans, grease, line with a parchment or wax paper round, and grease the round.  The original recipe left off that part, and the full cake did not release; I was able to get the removable bottoms off without breaking the tartlets by using an offset spatula.  Broken scraps are still yummy.  For a tart pan, place on a parchment-lined baking sheet.  Some of the batter is bound to leak through.

2.  In a small bowl or pint measuring cup, whisk together oil, buttermilk, egg, and rosewater.  In a medium bowl, sift together both flours, sugar, baking powder and soda, and salt.  Since I was using powdered buttermilk, the milk solids went in with the dry and I mixed water in the wet.

3.  Pour the wet mixture into the dry and stir until mostly moistened.  Add figs and stir again to distribute and make sure there are no large pockets of dry mix on the bottom.

4.  Pour batter into prepared pan.  I used my four individual tartlet pans and one 6" round, rather than make one full sized cake.  Considering that the cake broke, that was a good idea as far as food photography goes.  You could also make muffins out of this batter.  I'm guessing about a dozen.

5.  Bake 35-40 minutes, until golden on top and firm to the touch.  If you're using the tart pan, it might be a bit thin for a toothpick test, but you can try.

6.  Cool in the pan 15 minutes, then gently remove the ring (or turn out of a regular pan) and cool completely.  Can be served as is, or with a dusting of powdered sugar or glaze.

Cake release fail

Makes one cake, about 8-10 servings

Difficulty rating  :)