My Dad's mother was so much fun, that is her sitting on a rock in the middle of the river. Notice the lady in the photo with her, she has a pair of dress shoes in her hand. They were probably at a family reunion, dressed up for it & my sweet grandmother thought a wade in the river would make the day better! Granny was the kind of grandmother that would get in trouble with our Mom's for letting us play outside in mud puddles in the rain! She was mischievous, laughed all the time & had the best sense of humor ever! She raised three sons who were all gentle, kind & wonderful men. I miss her everyday!
I was very blessed to have Grandmothers who were incredible Southern cooks. They were young brides during the Great Depression & sometimes ingredients were not always available. Going through a box of photos that belonged to my Granny, I found a hand written recipe on a yellowed scrap of paper. It was titled "Fig Cake", that got my attention right away, I love figs & if Granny thought it was worth saving..it had to be good!
Granny's Fig Preserves Cake
1 cup canola oil
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp white vinegar
2 cups fig preserves
1 cup chopped nuts
Bake in a tube pan or bundt pan. Rub pan with solid shortening & dust with flour. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
In a mixing bowl combine oil & sugar, beat at medium speed until well blended.
Add the 3 eggs to the oil & sugar mixture & beat till foamy, about 2 minutes.
In a separate large mixing bowl, stir together the flour, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon & baking soda.
Slowly add to the wet ingredients in the mixing bowl with mixer on low speed. After all the dry ingredients are mixed in , add the vinegar , fig preserves, & nuts.
Mix at low speed until all ingredients are blended, about 1 minute should do it, don't over beat.
Pour into the prepared pan, batter is thick so will have to be spread in pan.
Bake for 1 hour, let cook & remove from pan
Cinnamon Vanilla Glaze
1/4 cup half & half or milk
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp vanilla
1/2 to 1 cup of powdered sugar
Heat half & half over low heat, add the cinnamon & vanilla. Mix well & turn off heat.
Add 1/2 cup of powdered sugar, mixing well.
Add more powdered sugar to create the thickness of glaze that you like.
Drizzle over warm baked cake, It will harden as it cools.
Granny didn't use the glaze, that's my recipe but I think she would have approved!
This is a delicious cake that brings back such great memories of warm toast with fig preserves spread on top. It's easy & quick, I hope you try it & let me know what you think.
Oh, you went straight to my heart with this. I remember fig cakes. Nowadays, I would not use the preserves in a cake but keep them only for biscuits or serving with cheese. I guess you could say I am a hoarder of my mother's fig preserves. : )
ReplyDeleteI have never had fig cake, but I've got a fig bush that's putting out a lot of figs this year. Can't wait to try this! Do I need to turn the figs into preserves before making this, or what would you suggest? (I'm a total noob about figs. LOL)
ReplyDeleteI submitted this recipe to Southern Living in the late 60's and it was printed in their cookbook. I got the recipe from a co-worker who got it from her grandmother. My parents had 20 fig trees and made fig preserves for years and shared with 4 kids! Boy do I miss those days. Had to buy preserves from Amazon this year. Making my son one to take home for Christmas as he requested! By the way they are wonderful. And a little dark or sliced rum goes well in this cake batter and also in the glaze!
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