This Fig and Yogurt Almond Cake is a culmination of all the superb ingredients I get to cook and bake with every day. Lucky me!

When I baked this delicious Fig and Yogurt Almond Cake, I stopped halfway through the baking process thinking how lucky I am indeed. Beautiful olive oil from Olyfberg. The full fat yogurt from Fairview is next level and so are their incredible wines. In this recipe, I used the Fairview La Beryl Rouge which is a dessert wine.

Of course it is fig season at the moment, so that was an added bonus. Figs will always take me to my favorite place, Prince Albert, more specifically Weltevrede Fig farm. In South Africa, figs are in season from end January to round about April.

Fig and Yogurt Almond Cake

makes 1 medium-sized cake

Ingredients

Make the figs first

80 ml sugar

250 ml dessert wine

3 cardamom pods  crushed open

1 cinnamon stick

10 – 15 ml rose water

10-12 figs – halved

Method

Add the wine, cardamom, cinnamon, rose water and sugar to a pan and slowly bring to the boil. Allow the mixture to become syrupy, then the figs, cut side down. Turn the heat down to setting 1, and allow figs just heat through. In the meantime, line a 19 cm cake loose-bottom tin with baking paper and I also lined the sides of the tin. When the figs are done, place them in the bottom of the pan, on the baking paper – bottoms down this time. Drizzle some of the fig syrup on the figs. Now make the batter.

For the cake

120 ml olive oil

150 g sugar

2 eggs – I always use x-large eggs

80 ml yogurt

5 ml vanilla extract

3 ml salt

180 g almond flour – You can do half almond and half pistachio ( it gives a lovely color)

125 ml flour

5 ml baking powder

Method

Preheat oven to 180 C/350 F. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the olive oil and sugar until light in color. Add the eggs, vanilla extract and yogurt. Whisk to combine. In a separate bowl, sift together the almond flour, flour, baking powder and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and when properly mixed, pour over the figs in the pan. Bake for 40-45 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool. Serve with cream, yogurt or ice-cream, whatever you fancy.

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