I’m just not a fruit cake person, but everyone deserves a Christmassy ‘something’ at Christmas and this Spiced Fig and Ginger bread is that something for me. I’d longed for something dark, rich and gingery for ages (and I’m not talking about having an affair with a tanned red head from Monaco. Love my hubby) SO, this cakey, bread slash loaf was born with that in mind. I hope you enjoy it. Warm or toasted with butter is the perfect way I suggest!
Should you bother to make it? Well Steph P said this of it: “This recipe is amazing!! I made lots for Christmas pressies for all the gluten and dairy free people in my family….those of us who aren’t also LOVED it!! YUM YUM YUM!!” Do let me know how you enjoy! Alexx x
Hope you love it. Tag me on instagram when you make yours @lowtoxlife or pop a pic on facebook! Would love to see everyone’s!
Real Food. Low Tox living
Spiced Fig and Ginger Bread Recipe
Ingredients
- 10 pcs dried figs (make sure they’re preservative free) – plus 4 figs for garnish
- 1 cup boiling water
- 2 heaped tsp baking soda (bicarb)
- 100 g melted butter or coconut oil (1/2 cup)
- 3 whole eggs
- 4 tbsp coconut cream
- 1 tsp mixed sweet spices (i.e. if you only have cinnamon, that’s fine, but if you have a spice mix of cinnamon / nutmeg / cardamom etc then that’s fine too)
- 3 tsp ground ginger
- 1/3 cup coconut flour
- 2/3 cup buckwheat flour (or tapioca flour) (arrowroot flour is fine too, but is often preserved with 220. just check)
- 100-180 g rice malt syrup or pure maple syrup / 1/3 – 2/3 cup (play the sweetener to taste)
Instructions
- Preheat oven at 170C / 350F. Line a standard sized baking tin with parchment paper and butter or coconut oil. My favourite parchment paper can be found here.
- Pop 10 of the figs into a blender, food processor or thermomix, with the cup of boiling water and 1 heaped tsp of baking soda. let it soak 5 minutes.
- Take 2/3 cup of the water out by pouring it off, after the 5 minutes.
- Add all the wet ingredients into the fig / water mix. Pulse until pureed.
- Then add the coconut flour, tapioca flour, ginger, spices and 2nd teaspoon baking soda. Blitz it for 5-6 seconds on medium (speed 6 for thermomix)
- Pour into tin and then cut thin strips of fig slices and arrange in whatever pattern you fancy on top.
- Bake for 40 minutes, or until skewer comes out clean.
- Best, most delicious way is to eat fresh out of the oven, or toasted the next couple of days with melting butter or coconut butter on top OR as little slices in lunch boxes, being nut free! You could also consider baking it as a Christmas cake, douse in a little cognac or whisky and light it for a Christmas cake for the non fruit cake people (like me!)
- VARIATION: You can sub different fruits here. I've done prune and vanilla bean, apricot ginger... For all hard dried fruits, just ensure you still carry out the soaking step at the start.
Comments 40
Trying this today. Can’t wait;-)
Author
awesome. how did you go!?
Do you think I could substitute dates for figs?
I couldn’t wait after reading it. I tried preparing it yesterday with almost all ingredients. I believe my first attempt was a big success. Everyone who tasted it were asking for its recipe.
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Author
Thanks David. Glad you enjoyed! 🙂
I have an abundance of fresh figs at the mo, do you think this cake would work substituting fresh for dry? Leave out the soaking and blitzing without the water perhaps?? Thanks for all your amazing recipes Alexx 🙂
Author
Not quite the same unfortunately to use fresh fruit for a style of cake like that. Best make the choose your own adventure cake with a couple teaspoons fresh ginger in the mix and then top with whipped coconut cream & fresh figs that have been grilled with a little maple or rice malt on top. would look sensational! Take a pic if you make it, ok? x
Hey Alexx awesome stuff I’m going to try this with the banana flour I reckon it will be unreal love ginger and fig. Awesome stuff.
Author
Let me know how you go with the banana flour Robert. Sounds great! 🙂
Made this last night…..awesome!!!
Author
Yay. Glad you loved it Nancy! 🙂
We love this cake, its great hot toasted for breakfast with lashings of butter and its also the perfect lunch box snack. We make it so regularly that I buy figs in bulk – 5kg boxes. Thanks so much Alexx for an awesome recipe that is so quick and easy to make.
Author
wow Julie – That is a bit epic. 5kg? I love that you guys enjoy it so much. Thanks for letting me know x
This looks fabulous. Any way it can be made vegan by substituting for the eggs please?
Author
You could try the vegan egg subs – flax egg mix x 3 or chia gel and see how you go. x
I have an abundance of Pears & thought of trying it with Pear puree….how much would you use ?
Author
Yum! A good cup full would be divine in there!
Hi Alexx, I’ve made this twice now and it’s really super delicious but both times the texture has turned out quite puddingy. Is it meant to be extremely moist or do I just need to cook for longer? I’ve cooked it for about an hr each time, I think my oven is pretty slow…
Author
Hi Sophie
It could be that there’s a little too much moisture left in the fig soaking step or that your slow oven is meaning the batter doesn’t have a chance to stay aerated from being mixed and doesn’t dry it up enough. Glad you enjoy it – Try toasting it too with butter. So good x
Yup. It’s so good! Thanks, I’ll try taking out more water next time. Your fig cake photos do show the texture as being quite cake like with Good crumb!
Hey alexx, I finally had time and enough figs to make this cake again. With a few tweaks for my oven its turned out a very nice texture this time. But I had to take out all the soaking water and cook it for double the time… Wowsers it’s so delicious!!
I made this cake this week and it was divine! Thank you for another brilliant recipe.
I made this on the weekend and it was so delicious and easy .. loved doing the lot in the food processor! I used a mix of cinnamon, all spice and a chai spice mix I had lurking in the pantry and the flavours were lovely. Sorry I forgot to take a photo but I’m pleased to say it looked exactly like your pic above. Will definitely make it again .. thanks so much Alexx x
Author
So glad you enjoyed it Kim – It’s definitely one of our favourites here, too x
I have made these so often lately Alex and just adore this recipe. It gives a great crumb and is so versatile. My latest batch was a chocolate version. I just subbed the figs for dates and added in raw Cacao and cinnamon for the spices. They were loved by all in my house. Thank you xxx
The recipe makes a great loaf, cake or muffins. This recipe is truly a winner! 🙂
Now a firm family favourite that never ceases to make guests ohh and ahh!
Author
Aww so glad you love it Rebecca – guest oohs and ahhs are always such a good ‘fist pump’ feeling as a host, hey? x
Sounds yummy !!!! I’m going to try it soon ….. I have some fig purée in what quantity do you think I should use instead of the dried figs ….and would I just omit the water and the bicarb? Also what size is the cake tin …would I be able to use a loaf tin ? I see that yours is square…sorry for all the questions:)
Soooo good! I’m always looking for new ways to use my almond meal (after making almond milk) and this is awesome! I used 1 cup of (wet) almond meal and 1/2 cup tapioca meal, worked perfectly, thank you Alexx! (Excuse the exclamation marks, but they do tell a story!!)
Author
Ooh fantastic Kylie thanks for the share x
Made this cake few time and love it!
Just one thing what could I substitute the coconut cream with? Just always left with bit of left over coconut cream and I don’t get around to making curry to use it all up.
Yes I’m also wondering if there’s an alternative to coconut cream if I’m not otherwise using a tin? Delicious recipe – thanks!
Author
You could do 4 spoons of yoghurt or two yoghurt / two milk. 4 milk should be ok but it’s quite thin by comparison… Give it a go. Definitely won’t be a fail, just a bit more moist x
Could you make this with all fresh figs, instead of the dried? We have a fig tree that has lots of ripe fruit at the moment and trying to work out what to do with it all. If I can skip a step and not have to dehydrate them that would be great
Just reading through all of the comments and saw this has already been answered. Sorry! I’ll dehydrate a whole heap of figs and then make this recipe. Thanks ☺
Author
Let us know how you go x
I made this recipe substituting dates for the dried figs. I used 20 dates and drained off all the water after soaking. Made it up as muffins instead of a loaf – mix made 9 large muffins and cooked in around 25minutes. Delicious results. Thanks for a great recipe.
Author
Thanks so much for sharing Dell. Love hearing substitutes, especially when you provide the ratios, much appreciated x
Every time I make this, its a hit. Last night I made a double batch for my school’s staff morning tea, using honey to sweeten it as I had no other choices. It was a little black on top, but I just threw scattered some extra sliced figs to disguise it and had an evening taste test with my husband to make sure it was suitable to feed to others (it definitely passed). I was inundated with recipe requests after morning tea, it is definitely the soul-lifting comfort food that was needed by my colleagues on this cold, rainy, winter day 🙂