On the weekends, I watch a show from Greece called “ΠΟΠ Μαγειρική”, a cooking show that highlights PDO/appellation products from Greece and Cyprus. The current host is Andreas Lagos, a Greek chef who has appeared on TV, has cookbooks, helps launch new restaurants and he’s a native of Samos (island).

One of the featured products were Markopoulo figs, a fruit I’ve had the pleasure to taste, right off the tree. Markopoulo is located in Attica, north of Athens and near the airport. These figs are tremendous and I’ve seen them in markets here in Toronto.

Andreas made a Fig Cake and I had some leftover figs from a dinner party I catered last weekend. The stars were aligned – this recipe was a result of kismet.

My version is a little different from Andreas’ in that I finely chop dried figs and add that into the cake mix, I used star anise, and cinnamon as my chosen spices.

This cake is easy to prepare and wonderful as part of your breakfast, with afternoon coffee/tea or as a dessert.

Spiced Fig Cake

(serves 10-12)

Dry ingredients

6 dried figs

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. ground star anise

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Wet ingredients

2/3 cup melted unsalted butter (or a fruity light olive oil)

3/4 cup strained Greek yogurt

3 large eggs

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2/3 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup granulated white sugar

1/4 tsp. salt

Garnishes

3 or 4 fresh figs, halved

1 Tbsp. granulated sugar

1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

pre-heated 350F oven

1. Place your dried figs into a bowl and cover with hot water. Cover and allow 5 minutes to soften. Snip and discard the hard stems, roughly chop and place in a bowl. To the same bowl add your flour, baking powder, baking soda, star anise, walnuts and mix.
2. Into a another boil, add your butter, yogurt, eggs, vanilla, sugars and use a whisk to blend.
3. Gradually add your dry ingredients into wet while mixing. Line a 9″ x 4.5″ loaf pan with parchment and pour the batter in.
4. Cut your fresh figs in half and insert the halves into the top of your batter. In a small bowl, add sugar and cinnamon and stir. Sprinkle the mixture on top of your cake.
5. Place in your pre-heated oven for 50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
6. Allow to rest 5 minutes then carefully lift up your cake by holding onto the parchment then place on a cooking rack.
7. Remove parchment, slide into a serving platter. I served this cake with a dollop of whipped cream.