Ingredients
Check off ingredients as you go
For two cakes
For the cake batter
- 250g (2 cups) sifted flour
- 15g (1 tablespoon) baking powder
- 6 medium eggs (or 5 large)
- 120ml (½ cup) neutral oil (sunflower, grapeseed or a mix)
- 200ml (¾ cup plus 1 tablespoon) water (or milk)
- 5g (1 teaspoon) salt
For the filling
- 180g (6 oz) goat cheese
- 200g (6 figs) cut into quarters (8 pieces each)
- a few thyme leaves
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 50g (⅓ cup) crushed hazelnuts (or walnuts, optional)
Preheat the oven to 160°C (320°F) convection. Line your pans with parchment paper (or lightly oil them). In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, salt, and baking powder, then add the eggs, oil, honey while mixing, and the water (or milk). Add the crumbled goat cheese, hazelnuts, thyme, and chopped figs (reserve a few quarters to decorate the top of the cakes). Add pepper.
Once the batter is smooth, pour into the pans, smooth the surface with the back of a spoon if needed. Scatter the reserved figs on top and bake for 45-50 minutes on a rack in the middle/lower part of the oven.
This type of baking, similar to that of bouscoutou cake, gives a moist texture, not dry at all. Check doneness with a toothpick or knife tip - it should come out clean.
Serve with a nice endive salad.
Tips and variations
- You can replace the goat cheese with blue cheese, roquefort or feta as in the fall fig salad, also very pleasant in this season.
- If you don’t have figs, this savory cake will also be delicious with pears!
- For mini cakes, reduce baking time to 30 minutes.
- Unlike other cakes like the deli meat and olive cake, the goat cheese and fig cake doesn’t freeze well. Since the filling is softer, I don’t recommend freezing it.