Last week was my dad’s birthday and each year I like to make him an unusual cake featuring one of his favourite flavours. Last year was grand marnier with glazed oranges (I’m still salivating thinking about that cake) and this year, it’s figs.
My parents have 5 fig trees on their property so each year there’s often an abundance. We got a bucket full and since there’s only two of us I knew we couldn’t enjoy them all in time. So it was their destiny to become fig ice cream (yum) and then to be paired with my autumn spice cake (double yum).
Here’s how you can make your own perfectly spiced, perfectly ‘brink of autumn’ cake, complete with fig ice cream.
- 1C soy or almond milk (you can also use cow's milk)
- 1tbsp apple cider vinegar
- ¾C sugar
- ⅓C canola oil
- 1tbsp vanilla extract
- 1⅓C flour
- ½tsp cinnamon
- ½tsp nutmeg
- ⅛tsp cloves
- ¾tsp baking soda
- ½tsp baking powder
- ¼tsp sea salt
- If you have an ice cream maker, make this fig ice cream recipe from Taste Spotting. It's incredible. Though be sure to use a small lemon. I had a large one and it came out too lemony. If you don't have figs I figure using straight up fig jam will do the trick (approx 2C).
- If you don't have an ice cream maker then scrounge up the yummiest tasting ice cream you can to pair with this bad boy of a cake.
- ½C cream cheese
- ½C butter, softened
- 2C icing sugar
- 2Tbsp water
- Preheat oven to 350F. Grease your cake pan (I use a spring form)
- Whisk the soy milk and apple cider vinegar in a large bowl. Set aside for a few minutes to curdle (yes it's okay). Meanwhile, sift together all the dry ingredients in a small bowl.
- Add the sugar, oil and vanilla to the milk mixture. In two batches, add the dry ingredients to the wet and beat until there are no large lumps left (small ones are fine).
- Pour into your cake pan and bake for 40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. When ready, transfer to a cooling rack and let it cool completely before cutting the cake in half lengthwise.
- Spread a generous amount of icing on the top cake slice. Put a thin layer of cream cheese icing on the top of the bottom half (so that the ice cream doesn't sink through the holes in the cake) then spread large scoops of fig ice cream on top so that you entirely cover the cake. Carefully transferred your iced cake top onto the fig ice cream to complete the layer. Decorate with flowers from your garden.
- Cream together the butter and cream cheese until blended thoroughly. ½C at a time, add the icing sugar and keep mixing until you get your desired icing texture.
- If it becomes to stiff, mix in a tbsp of water at a time to make your icing softer.
Of course if you can’t get fig ice cream, vanilla or any other tasty variety will do just fine. You could even use a different icing and cake if you have your own recipes, so long as you remember this equation:
cake + ice cream + icing = perfection
This looks amazing! Love all the fall flavors!
I’m sorry I don’t have a gluten free version! I’m sure you can adapt it 🙂
Oh my goodness, this looks amazing! Love the flowers on top, and that cake stand is so cute!
I bought it ages ago along with a larger one. I swapped out the red polka dot ribbon it came with for this pink one and we used them at our wedding. They were perfect