This cake is soft, moist, and buttery. I put the sliced figs about 20 minutes into baking the cake so that they don't burn and get bitter. This worked out perfect and the little amount of brown sugar on the surface helps to develop a sweet brown crust. The whiskey adds a gentle flavor to the cake and the figs become even "figgier!"
This cake will last for a couple of days outside but if refrigerated it should last for a little more than a week. A good quality honey bourbon will do wonders for the cake but any other whiskey should be equally good with the figs.
This recipe first appeared on A Brown Table on September 9th, 2012.
Whiskey-Kissed Brown Turkey Fig Cake
Servings: About 8 -12
Ingredients
6 fresh ripe figs
1/4 cup golden raisins
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups of a good quality fig butter/preserves (I used the Trader Joe's brand of fig butter -- it is rich and dark and not overly spiced)
2 sticks unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs
1 cup sugar
50ml honey bourbon whiskey or any other whiskey
1 tablespoon brown sugar
Preheat the oven to 350F. Cut the stems of the figs and slice them across their length. Add the figs to the whiskey and let them sit for 30 minutes at room temperature.
Sift the flour and salt twice and keep aside. In a thick-bottomed sauce pan, melt the butter and the preserves on a medium flame. Stir constantly until the butter and preserves are combined and smooth. Remove from heat and keep aside.
Break the eggs into a large mixing bowl, add the sugar and with an electric mixer cream the eggs and sugar till they expand in volume to four times its original mass. The goal here is to beat as much air as you can into the cake batter and this should take about 15 minutes if you use the high speed of an electric mixer.
Pour half of the melted butter-fig mixture into the whisked eggs and sugar. Drain the whiskey from the sliced figs and pour it into the batter. For now, keep the sliced figs aside. Fold gently with a spatula and then add the rest of the butter-fig liquid and combine gently. Do not overfold the batter because you will lose the air that you so carefully whisked in. Fold in the raisins. Take an ungreased rectangular baking dish (12 X 10 inches) and pour the batter into the dish.
Bake the cake in the preheated oven. The cake will begin to rise and brown. At 20 minutes through baking, open the door of the oven and carefully add the sliced figs across the surface of the cake. Sprinkle the brown sugar on the surface. Be quick and don't let the cake stay out for more than 2 to 3 minutes.
Put the cake back into the oven and bake the cake until the crust is golden brown and the center of the cake is cooked. This will take another 20 minutes (a knife should come out clean from the center of the cake). Remove the baked cake and allow to cool to room temperature before you serve.