Fig Upside Down Cake

Okay, okay…we do have our own fig tree but you can buy them at the market and they are truly fabulous, raw, baked, whatever. I love them. When we operated our Bed and Breakfast, we would drive into Vancouver to the Granville Island Market, buy some and then return home. No one grocery store would bring them in, which is too bad.

• 1  1/2 lbs. fresh figs, stemmed and quartered
• 1 cup sugar
• 6 oz. butter, room temperature
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 2  1/4 cups flour, sifted
• pinch of salt
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tbsp. finely chopped crystallized ginger
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 cup whole milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, mix the figs with the sugar. In a cast iron skillet, melt 1/2 of the butter and saute for 2 minutes.

For the batter, cream the remaining butter and brown sugar. Stir in the eggs, one at a time. Sift together the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon.

Combine the vanilla and milk. Add the flour mixture  and milk to the egg mixture. Mix well. Fold in the ginger, combining well. Pour this over the figs and bake in the oven for about 40 minutes until the cake is a golden colour and pulls slightly away from the edges of the skillet.

Cool for about half an hour and invert onto a large platter.

When serving, be sure to add a generous dollop of sweetened whipping ceam or ice cream.

I know, you can’t stop eating it. You are so welcome.