Fig Orange Cake with an Almond Brandy Sauce

This is a perfect winter cake and it's deliciously moist and fluffy. Completed with a luscious brandy and almond sauce to give you that trip to heaven!

This recipe was inspired by the fresh figs that my dad brought from Mumbai which are not available here locally! So it's a treat every time he gets them and I experiment and create dishes with this versatile fruit.

This is what I always do, I check out Pinterest  for good recipes, mix 3-4 of them and create a new one. You should do that too because it gives you a sense of freedom and I'm sure you'll love to play.

This cake is to show, like many other of its fellow cakes, that beautiful, delicious, moist and fluffy cakes can be made without any animal products! For the egg substitute I used flax egg, soy milk and vinegar. It works perfectly and gives the cake an Omega-3 and protein boost. Awesome right?

I think fruit cakes are absolutely the best cakes in the world because they are inspired from the beautiful desserts that nature has provided us with. This cake was inspired from figs and the addition of the orange juice and zest was totally an experiment which was successful, thank God

The almond butter in the sauce gives it a creamy texture without adding empty cream calories to it and compliments the tastes of the brandy and dried figs.

This is an absolute celebratory cake with fun and awesome toppings and garnishes and will be awesome for winter birthdays or just because you want to eat a brandy cake!

Fig Orange Cake with a Brandy Almond Sauce

PREP TIME	COOK TIME	TOTAL TIME
20 mins	60 mins	80 mins

This is a perfect winter cake and it's deliciously moist and fluffy. Completed with a luscious brandy sauce to give you that beautiful winter-y taste!

Category: Cakes, Baking, Vegan, Desserts

Serves: 4

 

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Ingredients

For Cake
• 3 Figs
• 2 and 1/2 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
• 1/2 Cup Almond Meal
• 2 tsp Baking Powder
• 2 tsp Baking Soda
• 3/4 Cup Coconut Sugar/Brown Sugar
• 1/2 tsp Himalayan Pink Salt
• 1 tsp Cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp Nutmeg
• 2 Flax Eggs, 2 tbsp Ground Flax seeds mixed with 6 tbsp water
• 1 Cup Soy/Almond Milk
• 4 tbsp Vinegar
• Juice of One Orange
• 1/4 Cup Oil
For Sauce
• 10-12 Dried Figs
• 1 Cup Water
• 1/4 Cup Brandy of your choice
• 2 tbsp Coconut Sugar/Brown Sugar
• 1 tbsp Almond Butter
• 3 tbsp Slivered Almonds
• 1/2 Orange Zest

Instructions

1. Mix together the dry ingredients for the cake.
2. Add in the wet ingredients.
3. Mix well and form a thick batter.
4. Bake it in a cake dish lined with oil and flour in a preheated 180 degree Celsius oven for 55-60 mins or until toothpick comes out clean.
5. For the sauce add the water, brandy, figs and sugar to a pan and heat it up.
6. Boil it while stirring continuously until the figs become soft and break easily, about 10-15 mins.
7. Now add the almond butter and mix until fully combined.
8. Let it thicken up a bit for 3-4 mins. It will become thicker as it cools down.
9. Garnish the cake with this delicious sauce, figs and slivered almonds and enjoy the winters in a healthy yet delicious way!

Homemade Healthy Nut Butters

If you've never made nut butters at home, you're missing out! Once you make these real butters you'll never want to go and get the store bought artificial ones. Here is a recipe for homemade, preservative free nut butters which do not have any added oil or sugar in it! Just the sultry awesomeness of peanuts, almonds and cashews.

Nut butters are generally considered pretty healthy but people often overlook the amount of added sugar and unnecessary oils they are adding to their bodies with the commercially sold products. Nuts are naturally rich in proteins and healthy fats and adding extra oil and sugars to them doesn't really make sense to me and just takes away from the natural flavor nature has bestowed us with.

These nut butters easily replace cream in sauces, soups and gravy and add a depth and dimension to the flavor and texture of the food. They are absolutely delicious on their own but also make great companions with fruit or some honey on toast, they are luscious and absolutely worth indulgence.

Extremely easy to make and require just the nuts, an oven and a blender. If you don't have an oven you can also roast them in a pan on low heat without any oil, moving them around till they are golden-brown.

Then all you have to do is let them cool and transfer to a blender and blend them for 4-5 minutes on medium speed scraping off the edges every minute or so.

Let's so this.

First blend looks like this.

The oils are starting to bind everything together.

Oh yeah! The sacred spiral.

Your luscious beauty is ready!

I will be using these fabulous nut butters in many of my future recipes as they are extremely healthy and rich in good fats and high in proteins.  I've been making these since a few months following this recipe. But I've found that just roasted nuts work exceptionally well on their own, because they are too glorious already to be added any sugar or oil to. I do add a little Himalayan pink salt to bring out their natural flavors. Okay enough said, go and make this awesomeness.

Homemade Nut Butters

PREP TIME	COOK TIME	TOTAL TIME
15 mins	15 mins	30 mins

Homemade nut butters from scratch without any additional sugar or oils.

Category: Gluten Free, Breakfast, Condiments, Vegan

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 2 cups Peanuts
• 2 cups Almonds
• 2 cups Cashews
• 1/2 tsp Pink Salt, for each batch
• 2 tbsp honey, for each batch (optional)

Instructions

1. Toast the babies in separate batches in a 175°C (347°F) preheated oven for 5 to 10 minutes or until golden. If you don't have an oven you can also roast them in a pan without any oil, moving them around continuously till they are golden-brown.
2. Then all you have to do is let them cool and transfer to a blender and blend them for 6-7 minutes on medium speed scraping off the edges every minute or so.
3. Add 1/2 teaspoon Himalayan pink salt to every batch of 2 cup nuts. I like using this salt in most of my recipes but you can replace it with rock salt if you want.

* Store in air tight jars and refrigerate for 2-3 months.