Fig and almond cake is a perfect bake all year long. Crunchy toasty nuts and chewy fruity dried figs make cake interesting for brunch, dessert, holidays. We have a hunch you’ll find a fig almond cake recipe below for your next special occasion.
Figs
Dried figs bring concentrated sweetness to coffee cake and cake baked with almonds. Toasty almonds pair well with Golden Figs with their delicate fruit flavor that’s slightly tangy and nutty. Mission Figs offer the familiar fig fruit taste reminiscent of your childhood favorite cookie.
Almonds
Sometimes, bakers will opt to bump up the almond flavor of a cake by swapping in almond extract in place of vanilla extract. Almond extract is sold nationwide in grocery stores.
If you’ve never baked with almond flour, you’ll love how light the texture is as the nuts provide the necessary structure for cake batter. Almond flour is basically ground almonds in flour form that happens to be naturally gluten-free too. Make your own by pulsing the nuts until they resemble flour—take care though, if you over-process the almonds, you make almond butter. Make sure you pulverize only as much of the almonds to flour as needed for the cake and keeping optimal freshness. You can also now buy ground almond flour (also sometimes sold as almond meal) at groceries nationwide. Store almonds and almond flour in the refrigerator and freezer.
Recipes
Flourless Fig Cake
The dried figs get pulsed into the almond flour breaking down the fruit into the cake batter. This cake isn’t gluten-free as it uses all-purpose flour to lighten the crumb even more. Dollops of orange crème fraiche finish the cake just before serving it. Arrange figs over the top seed-side up. This cake can be made ahead—and keeps at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Pan de Higo
Spanish pan de higo translates to bread of figs but is a pressed cake made of pulverized dried figs and almonds. While the rest of the recipes fall into the dessert category, this one is meant to be sliced and served on cheese plates.
Golden Fig Almond Flourless Cake
Orange and cardamom-scented cake, made of almond flour gets a flourish of Golden Figs and sliced almonds on top. The flourless cake is gluten-free and dairy-free. Bake it for brunch. The fig and almond cake recipe is a favorite at Passover too.
Almond Fig Coffee Cake
This is the coffee cake you’ve been looking for if eating less refined sugar is a goal of yours. It uses low glycemic coconut sugar and maple syrup. Dried figs are the main source of sweetness as they get stirred into the batter and are scattered into the fig almond crumble, topping the fig almond cake. Indulge in this dessert recipe at brunch.
Almond Roulade with Fig Paste
Here’s a different kind of fig almond cake: a roulade. Roll cakes or roulades make quite an impression! Chocolate and almond come together in a roll cake layered with sweet fig paste and mascarpone cream. This might be the holiday cake you never knew you needed, decorated with meringue mushrooms and a chocolate ganache glaze to resemble tree bark for a Buche de Noel. Naturally gluten-free.
Panforte
Deep winter spices are redolent in this pressed nut and fig cake. This Piedmont, Italy cake, when sliced, reveals sections of whole nuts. Dusted with powdered sugar, this fig cake is a terrific accompaniment to a cheese plate or cheese course and this fig cake makes a fantastic home-baked holiday gift too.
