SHF #35 - Chocolate ginger and fig cake

Ivonne of Cream Puffs in Venice is hosting this month's Sugar High Friday, and has chosen the theme of "The Beautiful Fig". I couldn't agree more that figs are indeed beautiful, whether fresh or dried, and whether in sweet or savoury dishes. There is something remarkably decadent about biting into a sweet, juicy fresh fig, and the fig itself is an object of beauty with its softly rounded shape, purple and green hued skin and pink flesh.

It was my birthday last week, so for work tomorrow, I have made myself a chocolate ginger and fig cake, which is also my entry for The Beautiful Fig edition of Sugar High Friday. It contains dried figs, the sweetness of which is nicely balanced by the mild tang of the ginger. The recipe is as follows:

125g butter
1 cup brown sugar
2 lightly beaten eggs
1 1/2 cups self raising flour
1/3 cup cocoa
3/4 cup milk
2/3 cup chopped dried figs
1/3 cup chopped crystallised ginger

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Grease a 22 x 12cm loaf pan and line with baking paper. (I skipped the lining part and had a few anxious moments turning the cake out in one piece!).

Beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Sift the cocoa and flour together, and add to the batter alternately with the milk and combine well. Stir in the figs and half the ginger.

Pour batter into prepared pan, and sprinkle the remaining ginger on top. Bake for 1 hour or until cooked through. Cool for 5 minutes in the pan before turning out onto a wire rack to complete the cooling process. Voila!

This cake combines three of my favourite things - chocolate (in the form of cocoa), figs and ginger. How could you go wrong? I adore this cake and have made it before. It is luscious, rich and decadent, just like the figs which it contains.

Unfortunately, the presence of the figs is not apparent in either photo which accompanies this post, but believe me, they are there!