Fig, raspberry and almond cake

I got a quiet reminder from some of the guys I had over for lunch the other day that I had forgotten to post the dessert I made. With a bit of a chocolate hangover from Easter I figured this was a good time to stick it up on these pages. I got the idea for this recipe from the awesome Kylie Kwong and chose to use the ingredients because they are beautifully in season at the moment. Any fruit can be used but honestly, why would you not want to use figs? 

Stuff you'll need to make a cake for 8-10 people:

•  3 figs, stems removed and cut lengthways
  
• Two-thirds of a cup of self-raising flour
• 2 cups of icing sugar
• 2 cups of almond meal (ground almonds are fine)
• 2 tablespoons of finely grated orange zest
• 8 egg whites
• 185g of butter, melted
• 1.5 tablespoons of milk
• A punnet of fresh raspberries
• 1.5 teaspoons of brown sugar

Okay, what to do:

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees celsius. Lightly grease a 23cm cake tin and line the base and sides with a double layer of baking paper. Make sure it sticks out a bit over the rim of the tin. 

2. Sift icing sugar and flour into a large bowl. Stir in almond meal and orange zest until well combined. 

3. Place egg whites in a bowl and whisk lightly with a fork. (You don't need peaks, you just want the egg whites to break down slightly).

4. Add egg whites, butter and milk to almond mixture and stir until everything is mixed in. Fold through half the raspberries. DON'T OVER-MIX. 

5. Pour half the mixture into the cake tin and add the remaining raspberries. Pour remaining mixture over the top. Push sliced figs into mixture at a slight angle. (How you do this is up to you but I like it to look "haphazard". The rustic vibe is cooler I think)

6. Sprinkle over the sugar and place in oven for about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Start checking after an hour though. You know it is done when you can insert a skewer/knife and remove it cleanly. If the top is becoming too brown cover with tinfoil. 

Now the hard part. You have to leave the beautiful thing in the tin for 10 minutes before you turn it over onto a wire rack. It's tough to wait. 

You can serve this either hot or cold, which makes it a great dessert to make in advance. Oh, and please throw on a scoop of proper vanilla ice cream. I mean, come now. 

Cheers,

Jamie Who