Fig Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
This March marks the 10th anniversary of the company I work for, Wild Fig Marketing! Since we can’t get together to celebrate with cake (boo, COVID!), I decided to create a recipe for a Fig Cake that we can all make on our own. Because there HAS to be cake, right? A celebration just isn’t a celebration without it. This single-layer almond-scented cake is dotted with chopped dried figs and topped with a thin layer of fig jam and a lush cream cheese frosting. Perfect for a (small) celebration.
Fig Fun Facts
As I was tooling around looking for inspiration for this cake, I stumbled on a few fig facts that I wasn’t aware of. Did you know:
- Figs go way back—fossil records date the earliest varieties to 9400-9200 B.C.!
- Figs are part of the Mulberry family.
- Fig trees appear not to have flowers, but the flowers are inside the figs! Those crunchy bits inside a fig? Each one is the seed to a flower. Crazy.
- Almost every species of fig tree is pollinated by a distinct species of fig wasp specific to that tree. Oh, and there are like 700 species of figs in the world. Who knew there were that many kinds of fig wasps??
- Wild Fig trees have incredibly deep roots. One at Echo Caves, near Ohrigstad, Mpumalanga, South Africa, has the deepest roots on record for any tree, at 400 feet deep!
I bet you never knew figs could be so fascinating. I sure didn’t. But enough trivia, let’s get to the cake!
Fig Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
To make this cake, I adapted one of my tried and true cake recipes—I used versions of it in both my Peaches and Cream Cake and my Lemon Cupcakes. I toyed with the idea of using some citrus with the figs, but in the end opted for a light almond flavor instead. I wanted something that would highlight the flavor of the figs without overwhelming it, and a little almond extract was just the ticket.
To simplify things, I kept this cake to one layer instead of two. You could certainly double it to make a layer cake—trust me, no one would be sad about that! One layer just makes it quick and simple to toss together.
For the frosting, I went with a big, heaping mound of my favorite cream cheese frosting. It’s a fluffy, not-too-sweet frosting with just a touch of tang from the cream cheese (it’s also amazing on sugar cookies!). I almost cut the frosting recipe in half, since this is just a one layer cake, but then thought better of it and went for a full batch instead. After all, nothing says celebration like a whole lot of frosting, right?
A Few Tips Before We Start Baking
This cake really is simple, but there are a few details that will help yours turn out just right:
- Make sure your 8″ cake pan is at least 2″ tall. If it’s shallower, the cake could overflow in the oven.
- If you don’t have an 8″ cake pan, a 9″ will work in a pinch, but you’ll need to decrease the baking time a bit (I’d check it at 25 minutes and go from there).
- Toss the chopped figs into the flour mixture before adding them to the cake. This keeps the figs from sticking together into big clumps, and it also helps keep them all from sinking to the bottom of the cake.
- This may go without saying, but cool the cake completely before frosting it—otherwise the frosting will melt.
- Don’t skip the fig jam layer! Even though it’s just a thin layer of jam, it adds a lot of flavor to the cake.
- Make sure the cream cheese and butter are nice and soft before making the frosting. Otherwise you’ll get lumps (it’ll still be tasty…just lumpy and tasty).
- Don’t like almond? Try using some lemon zest! Lemon and fig go great together. Just omit the almond extract and toss the zest of half a lemon in with the vanilla.
Ok friends, preheat those ovens, grease that cake pan, and let’s get to it!
I hope you enjoy this cake as much as I enjoyed creating it. And when you take your first bite, take a second to send out a hearty “cheers” to Wild Fig for 10 years in business!
Happy Baking!
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Fig Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Equipment
- 1 8-inch cake pan
Ingredients
Fig Cake
- 1 c granulated sugar
- 1/2 c butter, softened
- 2 eggs, room temperature
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp almond extract
- 1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
- 1 3/4 tsp baking powder
- 8 dried mission figs, chopped
- 1/2 c milk
- 1/4 c fig jam, at room temperature
- 3 whole dried mission figs, for decoration
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 1/2 c butter, softened
- 1/2 c cream cheese, softened
- 1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
- 2 c powdered sugar
Instructions
Fig Cake
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease one 8-inch cake pan, line the bottom with parchment paper, and grease the parchment paper.
- In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and chopped figs, stirring until figs are coated in flour mixture. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or in a large bowl with a hand mixer), cream butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy (2-3 minutes).
- Add eggs one at a time, beating just until combined in between. Scrape bowl as needed.
- Add vanilla and almond extracts and beat on low speed just until combined.
- Add flour mixture, mixing on low speed until combined. Scrape the bottom of the bowl to make sure there are no bits of flour mixture hiding there.
- Add milk and mix on low speed until combined.
- Pour batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.
- Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean (or mostly clean with a few moist crumbs on it). Cool in the tin for about 10 minutes, then carefully remove from the pan and set on a cooling rack to cool completely.
Cream Cheese Frosting
- Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or a hand mixer), mix butter and cream cheese on medium speed until well-mixed and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.
- Add vanilla bean paste or extract and mix well.
- Add powdered sugar a little at a time, mixing well in between.
- Once everything is well combined, beat at medium-high speed until frosting is fluffy. If frosting becomes a little too melty, pop it in the refrigerator to firm it up a bit.
- Once cake is cool, spread the fig jam in a thin layer over the top of the cake.
- Spread all of the frosting on top of the fig jam. Top with whole figs, and serve!
- Stored any leftover cake in an airtight container in the refrigerator (but bring up to room temperature before serving for the best flavors and textures).
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