One Thing I Ate: Warm fig cake with mascarpone whipped cream
A four star dessert at home.
Hello and welcome back to Five Things I Ate! This week, I made a cake and I want to share it with you. Read past posts here, and please follow my Instagram, @fivethingsiate.
There wasn’t supposed to be a newsletter this week. There wasn’t supposed to be warm cake, either, and definitely not at 1:30 in the morning. Absolutely not with fresh cream, softly whipped, spiked with mascarpone and vanilla paste, to compliment the melted sweet-tart figs in the batter, but here we are. You see, I was supposed to be packing my bags for a work trip, cleaning my room, and finishing some slides. But instead, I made an epic restaurant-style fig cake, and I FaceTimed a friend with a glass of cider. I would feel guilty, except that every past and future version of Sophie sides with the warm cake and midnight phone call, therefore present Sophie shall also comply, her life slightly devoid of a certain kind of magic and charm she was once very well versed in.
Here, take this slice of cake – and a very short recipe, because I’m going to bed.
Warm fig cake with mascarpone whipped cream
Serves 8, but I live alone, so please take some cake off my hands
This cake is adapted from the famous Marian Burros Plum Torte, which is amazing in plum form, but especially wonderful in this fig iteration.
The beauty of this recipe is that it barely requires one.
Just preheat the oven to 350F, and grease a 8x8 pan, two loaf pans, or a springform 8inch pan.
Cream together:
¾ cup sugar
1 stick softened butter (I always always use salted butter)
A pinch of cardamom
A pinch of cloves
Beat in:
2 large eggs
Sift in:
1 cup flour,
1 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
Spoon into prepared pan, and top with:
Approx ¾ lb fresh plums, washed and trims of stems, cut in half.
Arrange beautifully cut-side up, and sprinkle with sugar.
Bake for 45 min to 1 hour, or until browned on the edges and bubbly.
Let cool till just warm.
Meanwhile, make the mascarpone whipped cream:
Beat together with a wire whisk:
2-3 tbs mascarpone cheese, room temperature
1 cup heavy cream
A splash of vanilla
A pinch of salt
2 spoonfuls of powdered sugar.
Cut a slice of warm cake, and spoon whipped cream over. Eat immediately, so warm cream melts and pools in the caramelized fig.
Enjoy,
Soph
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