And this little figgy stayed home....

Fall is in the air and there's nothing like cool weather to make you want to bake. Who wants to make cake in the summer in a hot kitchen when it's 100 outside? Really!
   This is always how my baking adventures start....At the store I find some yummy item and buy it, not know what to do with it. Then I have to hunt through all my cookbooks, or God forbid....google....to find something to do with my food item. Luckily, I didn't have to work all that hard this time.
   Yup, I bought figs....again...I can't help it, they are so good and only come out for a short time. I also had just returned from the library where I picked up a copy of John Besh's "My New Orleans". After drooling over all the seafood I noticed a whole section on figs! Huzzah! What goes better with an LSU Tiger's game than a fig cake?

Cane Syrup Fig Cake

2 Cups sugar
1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup milk
2 cups chopped fresh figs
Grated zest from a quarter of a lemon
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 tablespoons Steen's Cane Syrup (or Golden Syrup)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons baking powder
4 egg whites
Cooking Spray

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Spray a Bundt cake pan with cooking spray.

Put the sugar and butter into a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer on medium high speed until light and fluffy, about 7 minutes.

Adding the butter and sugar

Add the milk, figs, lemon zest, cinnamon, cane sugar a vanilla and beat on moderate speed until everything is mixed together.

Everything but the figs in my favorite measuring cup from
The Museum of Useful Things

Sift together the flour, salt and baking powder into a large mixing bowl. Use a rubber spatula to fold the flour mixture into the sugar and butter mixture. Fold in by making figure eight motions with the spatula. Just fold in until everything is mixed together. 

In a clean mixing bowl beat the egg whites with clean beaters. Clean, and you want to make sure you separate your eggs in a separate container and transfer them into the mixing bowl one at a time. Beat the eggs on medium high speed until stiff peaks form (5 minutes). 

Carefully fold in one-third of the egg white mixture at a time. Do not over mix-you need the whites to be fluffy and airy in this cake! 

Folding in the egg whites

Pour the batter into the pan and bake until the cake is golden brown, 35-40 minutes.

Cooling the cake on a rack.

The cake is delicious and freezes quite well. The sugar settles in the crust giving it a crisp crunch and the figs add a nice tartness to the cake. It's great as a mid morning snack or a simple after dinner dessert.