caramel fig cake

Another three days and school holidays finally come to an end, I'm looking forward to it.  There is a very good reason why kids are meant to go to school, besides the obvious, to keep themselves entertained and not the constant "Mom, I'm bored.  Mom I'm hungry. Mom I'm tired. Mom, I'm this and that", so that for a few hours in a day I can actually think straight and behave normal.  The only time I can have a normal conversation these days is with myself when I'm in the shower.  

So during this morning's conversation (with myself mind you), I realised it's been a while since I baked something nice with fruit in it. Kinda like a desserty type of cake and while doing a quick inventory check-list (mentally, of course), I decided to make a fig upside down cake.  Ever heard of pineapple upside down cakes.  Well this is one of those, except this one is with figs lending a very nice crunch to the cake (the gazillion little seeds in figs, incase you're wondering).  Figs season is usually late summer/almost autumn in Australia.  So they're not easily available if you plan on making this cake.  But even pears will do nicely.

So that's settled then. Showers are great places to make big decisions, specially when the only other person you're having a conversation with is yourself.  And yes I'm happy going back to school next week.  Who knows I might even celebrate it with cupcakes.

caramel fig cake

Ingredients
Cake

• 150g butter, softened
• 150g caster sugar
• 1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped (bean reserved for custard)
• 2 eggs
• 150g self-raising flour
• 1/3 cup full cream milk

Caramel sauce

• ¼ cup caster sugar
• 50g butter
• 1/3 cup pure cream
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped
• 4 large fresh figs

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease and line a 20cm round spring form cake tin with foil then with baking paper.
2. For cake, beat butter, sugar and vanilla seeds together until pale, add eggs one at a time until combined. Add flour alternately with milk.
3. For caramel sauce, place all ingredients except figs into a medium saucepan over medium heat until sugar has melted. Bring to the boil and cook until mixture turns golden brown. Remove vanilla bean.
4. Pour caramel into prepared tin. Cut figs in half and arrange in the pan cut-side down with tops pointing towards the centre. Cover gently with cake batter, spreading until even. Place cake on a baking tray and bake for 45-50 minutes until cooked through.
5. For custard, pour milk and cream into a medium saucepan with vanilla and heat until scalding but not quite boiling. Meanwhile whisk egg with sugar until pale, slowly add warm mixture, whisking continuously. Mix flour with one tablespoon milk to a runny paste, add to mixture and stir to combine. Pour mixture into a clean saucepan, place over low heat and stir until mixture starts to thicken, 5-10 minutes. Once custard coats the back of a spoon, stir in honey. Cover custard closely with cling film.
6. Serve cake warm with vanilla custard.