Paleo Chocolate Cake with Figs two ways

24 Sep Paleo Chocolate Cake with Figs two ways

Posted at 19:27h in Dessert, Gluten Free, Paleo, Sugar Free, Uncategorized by

What do you do with piles of delicious, freshly picked, perfectly ripe figs sitting on your counter and ready to be eaten? The pile of fruit probably only has a day, maybe two before it is a pile of mush trying to go back into the earth. This is precisely the situation I was in this summer when our fig tree had hundreds of ripe figs within a week or two.

I picked for hours getting the figs off the tree and now they were all sitting there, waiting, in all of their plump and delicious glory for whatever I was going to do with them. The amount our tree produced was so great that it far exceeded even my family’s ability to eat fresh fruit – we all love it! So I asked Creativity (read: Google), what now? What can you do with figs? How best to preserve them? How can you make them last longer? The answer came: freezing, roasting, drying, making jam preserves, and bribing children to eat their dinner with promise of figs for dessert (thought up that one all on my own). I couldn’t let the beautiful gift our tree had given us go to waste, so I set to work making preserves, prepping figs to be frozen and experimenting with roasting/drying the figs.

I was determined to make sure we ate every last one of those figs but unfortunately cannot say I succeeded. By the time the figs were winding down and we’d all had too much of this good thing, a few went bad on the counter before we ate them. I still feel guilty about those few I ended up throwing away, but hundreds found their way into my freezer and my refrigerator as jam so the fig love could continue to be felt.

This recipe pairs a delicious chocolate cake (that is Paleo!) with two of the fig creations that came from preserving the figs. A quick refrigerator jam with a touch of honey and lemon is the center of this cake. Roasted figs sit on top. I think roasting figs is my new favorite thing to do with figs. The sugars in the fig caramelize and the result is a really satisfying treat that pairs great with chocolate.

The figs you use may not be from a tree in your backyard and you may not want to buy fresh figs and go through the trouble of making the jam and roasting the figs. That is most likely actually, so buy yourself a great fig jam and some dried figs to substitute if you’d rather, and enjoy!

Paleo Chocolate Cake with Figs two ways

Created by on September 24, 2018

Cake recipe adapted from My Paleo Patisserie

Ingredients

For the cake:

  • 1/2 c Ghee
  • 1 c Coconut Flour
  • 1/2 c Cocoa Powder
  • 2 tbsp. Potato starch
  • shake of salt
  • 6 Eggs
  • 1 c Flax or coconut milk
  • 2 tsp. apple cider vinegar
  • 2 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 1 c Maple Syrup
  • 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda

For the preserves: (Or substitute with 1/2 cup of store bought fig jam)

  • 2 c Fresh figs, halved
  • tsp. Lemon zest from 1 lemon
  • 1 tsp. Fresh lemon juice
  • 4 tbsp. Honey (or to taste)

For roasted figs: (Or substitute 1/2 cup of store bought dried figs)

  • 1 c Fresh figs

Instructions

Roasting Figs

  1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees F. Wash and dry figs. Line a baking sheet with figs and place in oven for two hours, turning once at about an hour in.
  2. Remove figs from oven and allow to cool, they should be shrunken and slightly caramelized.

Making Preserves

  1. Add all ingredients to a sauce pan and bring to a boil.
  2. Once boiling, turn down to a simmer and allow to cook down until a lot of the liquid has cooked off, about 20-30mins. Allow to cool.
  3. If making ahead, place in a mason jar while still warm and cover with a clean lid. Allow to cool on the counter (you'll hear the can lid pop in) and then place in the refridgerator for up to a month.

Making Cake

  1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease the edges of 2 6-inch round pans and cut parchment to fit in the bottom of each.
  2. Melt ghee in a saucepan and set aside to cool slightly.
  3. Combine coconut flour, cocoa powder, potato starch, and salt in a bowl and stir until well mixed.
  4. Separate eggs. Combine yolks with wet ingredients (milk, maple syrup, vanilla, vinegar and melted ghee) and put whites in a bowl on their own.
  5. Whisk wet ingredients until well combined and beat egg whites with a hand mixer until soft peaks form.
  6. Combine wet ingredients with dry and whisk until smooth. Add baking soda to the batter before mixing in a third of the egg whites. Fold in the remaining egg white.
  7. Split batter between the two prepared pans and cover the top of each with roasted (or dried, if using) figs and bake for 35-40 mins, until cake springs back when lightly touched. Remove from oven and allow to to cool slightly.
  8. Cut along the edges of the pan and remove the cakes from the pans. Allow to cool completely on a cooling rack.

Put it together

  1. Place one of the 6-inch cakes on a serving tray, fig side up and cover with fig preserves. Carefully place the second 6-inch cake on top of the cake and preserves, fig side up. Cut, serve and enjoy!
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