Fig season is a little confusing. There’s always a big rush in June, but then they tend to disappear for a few weeks, only to come back in full swing for the rest of the summer and early fall. Apparently this is because they have two back-to-back fruiting seasons. But I’ve been noticing them popping up in supermarkets this week. So I guess fig season is here, at least for now! The next time you spot them at the market, be sure to grab one or two baskets. That way you’ll have enough to make this fig cake and snack on the rest while it’s in the oven.
fig cake ingredient substitutions
While I’m usually a big fan of buttermilk in cakes like this one, I decided to go with plain yogurt here. I wanted to make this a little easier to throw together using ingredients you probably have around the house. So on a day that you just happen to find some really delicious figs, you should be able to throw it together without much planning.
Like buttermilk, yogurt gives this fig cake moisture and a little tang. But unlike buttermilk, it’s probably actually in your fridge right now. I mean, that’s what was in my fridge the day that I brought these beauties home from the fruit market. If you happen to have buttermilk, you can instead use 1/2 cup buttermilk in place of the yogurt.
The only ingredient that’s a little hard to find is orange blossom water, but you can get it at a supermarket with a good international food aisle, just about any Middle Eastern market, and of course online. It’s good to have around for Middle Eastern baking. If you can’t find orange blossom water, this fig cake is also wonderful with a few drops of rosewater, which is a little easier to find. In addition to Middle Eastern markets, you can also find rosewater in South Asian markets. If you go with rosewater, be sure to use restraint, as it has a tendency to overpower.
Or feel free to omit flower-waters altogether, and let the figs speak for themselves. Or you can go with a little vanilla extract for something completely different (yet equally delicious).
fig cake with orange blossom water
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour
Ingredients
For the fig and brown sugar bottom:
- Butter for greasing the pan
- 57g melted butter (half a stick/4 tablespoons)
- 100g light brown sugar (1/2 cup)
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 300g small fresh figs (about 10–11 oz)*
for the orange blossom yogurt cake:
- 200g flour (about 1 1/2 cups)
- 5g baking powder (1 1/4 teaspoon)
- 1.5g baking soda (1/4 teaspoon)
- 3g salt (1/2 teaspoon)
- 2 large room temperature eggs (110g)
- 55g melted and cooled butter (half a stick/4 tablespoons)
- 150g granulated sugar (3/4 cup)
- 170g plain yogurt (3/4 cup)**
- 15g orange blossom water (1 tablespoon)
Instructions
- To prep the fig and brown sugar bottom: Butter one 8-inch round cake pan. Cover the bottom with a parchment round.
- Mix together the melted butter, brown sugar, and salt, and pour it over the parchment-covered cake pan. Use an offset spatula to spread the brown sugar out evenly over the bottom until it’s completely covered.
- Slice the figs in half. Arrange the figs cut-side-down over the buttery brown sugar.
- To bake the cake: Preheat the oven to 350° F convection (177° C).
- Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a mixing bowl.
- Beat the eggs and butter together until they are very well incorporated. Then add the sugar, yogurt, and orange blossom water, and beat to combine well.
- Pour the wet mixture over the dry mixture, and stir together just until everything is combined. It won’t be completely smooth, and there might be some tiny lumps; this is completely fine. Don’t over-mix!
- Carefully pour the batter over the figs, smooth out the top a little bit with a spatula, and bake for about 30 minutes. It’s done once you can insert a toothpick into the center and batter doesn’t stick to it.
- Let it cool for 5 to 10 minutes in the cake pan. Then trace around the edge with a butter knife to make sure it’s loosened from the pan. Place a plate or cake-stand upside-down over the cake. Put on your grippiest oven mitts, and hold the plate and cake together so that your thumbs are underneath the cake pan. Carefully and quickly rotate it away from yourself and give it a quick up-and-down shake to release the cake from the pan. Remove the pan, slice, and serve.
Notes
* If you can’t find small figs, you can use larger ones. Just make sure you cut them into about 1/2-inch slices instead of cutting them in half. To get the same look as these photos, slice the figs along their equators instead of stem to end.
** If you have Greek yogurt, you can substitute it here, but make sure you water it down slightly before measuring (using either a little milk or water). It needs to be the approximate consistency of plain, unstrained yogurt (Greek yogurt doesn’t have as much moisture).
Absolutely, wildly delicious! But I ended up baking it twice (sort of). I used the 1/2 cup buttermilk suggested, and then followed the recipe exactly (except for the addition of a 1/2 tsp. cardamom and 1 tsp. ground coriander seed), and found that 30 minutes in the oven left me with a largely uncooked cake. I assumed it was done because the top was quite firm and springy. Later on, my clever daughter in law just popped it back in the oven at 350 for another 30 minutes or so, and, while the texture was maybe like a bread pudding rather than a cake, it was truly so delicious. So, you brilliant baker, what might I have done wrong?
Thank you for your help and for this instant-favorite recipe!
Ah, I’m sorry it took longer to bake than expected! Honestly I think it might just come down to fruit being an unreliable thing. Perhaps your figs had more moisture, and that moisture caused the batter to need a little extra time? It always takes 30 minutes for me, but perhaps I should add a note to the recipe that it could take longer sometimes! A slightly puddingy cake texture (as long as it’s not stodgy or soggy) is totally right for an upside-down cake—definitely shouldn’t be light and fluffy, so it sounds like it turned out well after all, but I’m sorry the bake time was longer than expected!
Hi, I made it and it was soo good. But why was the brown sugar layer just leaking from the bottom of my pan in the oven? When I flipped it, the top was mushy and a weird texture, was that normal or should I have baked it more even though it seemed very done on the top?
Hello! So it’s definitely not supposed to be *mushy*, but the top (or you know, the bottom, which becomes the top once you flip it) should for sure be syrupy and soft, since it’s made of fruit and sugar.
I’m not totally sure what you mean by leaking from the bottom—were you using a springform pan? This recipe really needs just a regular pan that’s closed on the bottom. Or if yours was bubbling *over* the top, let me know and I’ll add a note to the recipe that folks might want to line their oven with foil or place a sheet pan underneath. It’s never happened to me while making this recipe, but that doesn’t mean it can’t happen to others!
Hi! Yes I was using a springform pan.. maybe the brownsugar and butter layer was leaking from it. I’m going to try it again today tho bc it was still rlly gd.
Aah that must’ve made such a messs, that sucks! 😵💫
Yes totally a regular closed-bottom pan is ideal. That parchment round you place on the bottom ensures that it will release when you flip it over.
OMG this is such an amazing and easy recipe! Made this cake twice today as it was soo soo good. We finished the first one in no time.
I used plum as had no figs but 1kg plum from the garden. Added cinnamon and ground cardamom to it, they go really well with plum. I’m sure it’s just as good with pear and can’t wait to try it with figs. Thank you for this recipe!!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!! Plum works so great here too. Plum upside down cake is actually the cake I photographed for the title page of the upside-down cake section in my book (A Dish for All Seasons). I give lots of specifics for substituting different fruits (there’s a whole upside-down cake seasonal produce chart!) and also include a bunch of different batters you can mix and match. Anyway all just to say that I love that you improvised!
I just made this and wow. I love figs and orange blossom so this was perfect. I also added orange zest to the sugar and butter mixture for the figs and also added a bit of ground cardamom. As it goes lovely with figs and orange blossom. I also added orangeest and some orange juice to the cake batter. It turned out so good.
Ooh that all sounds so awesome!! 😍 I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
I haven’t tried it yet as my fig tree had a fungus and had to be destroyed. When the new one comes in good and begins to produce it’ll be top of my list. I wanted to thank you for your detailed instructions, simplified. And the slide button to keep ones phone from going dark whilst incorporating ingredients..fabulous idea!!!
Again, thank you for this beautiful fig cake recipe..I cannot wait to bake it…Ciao
Ah that’s such a shame about your tree! I’m glad you’ve got a new one, and hope it starts producing in no time!
And thank you, I didn’t even notice that update until now! I use the “tasty recipe” plugin, and just installed updates the other day, and it seems they automatically added that feature to the recipe card. Super useful, and will definitely keep that feature activated!
I have made this twice now – once exactly following the recipe and once with some tweaks.
My husband is Syrian-Lebanese and I always have orange blossom water in the house. It gave the first cake a lovely hint of that flowery flavor and was quite good!
The second time, I zested about half an orange and mixed that with the brown sugar/butter, then added the remaining zest and about 2 T of the juice into the batter, along with about a teaspoon of homemade vanilla extract (perfect bc I needed extra liquid since I used Greek yogurt). It was heavenly! The orange zest/juice gave it a lighter, summery flavor.
Since our fig tree runneth over (and I already have 14 half pint jars of preserves this year!), I am keeping this recipe on regular summer rotation! Both as-is and with tweaks, it is outstanding. Looking forward to trying more recipes from your blog.
Oh I love the changes you made to the recipe—that sounds absolutely wonderful! I sometimes resist adding orange zest to my orange blossom recipes on here, just because so many of my readers are trying orange blossom water for the very first time, and I really want them to experience the difference between the two flavors on their first try. But you guys are orange blossom pros, and zest and blossom water do go so wonderfully together. That sounds absolutely amazing, and I will definitely be trying it next time I make this one.
Love the combination of figs with orange blossom and yogurt. And the cake looks amazing!
Aw thank you so much! I hope you enjoy it if you try it 🙂