A delicious butterscotch cake that is topped with an orange sour cream glaze and decorated with fresh figs. Made in one bowl and tastes amazing.
In summer every year, I take on a new role. Not the one I enjoy but more like an involuntary participation. Traffic police! Yes, supervising refrigerator traffic! You don’t know what that means? Let me explain. During my growing up years in India, traffic on the roads was not controlled by traffic lights or signage. It was manually controlled and supervised by a human being..a policeman stationed in the middle of important roads. As scary as it sounds, this was how entire cities functioned. He would signal with his hands and typically all driver’s eyes would be glued on to his actions. He obviously had to be completely perfect and alert at his job or else I cannot even imagine the repercussions! On my way to school every day, I would pass a very stern looking traffic policeman on a busy intersection. My sister and me would wave at him and he obviously would never wave back. Thankfully, he didn’t. I find it quite funny though when I remember how silly we were.
So, summer time for me is about managing inventory, reading labels, organizing contents only to re-organize in a couple of days and of course, gaining weight. Where do you think the fridge contents will end up? Because I am a fresh produce freak who gets so carried away looking at the beautiful fruits and veggies, my refrigerator is loaded to the point of things falling out if you opened the door. And the situation is somewhat like this ‘ricotta out…cream cheese in’….nectarines for lunchbox….strawberries have made it. Yay!
On Monday, I came back with two boxes of fresh figs. Beautiful, ripe, delicious figs…you can’t be accused of buying FIGS, right? Even with a loaded fridge. We ate a few in a salad, then with yogurt. Then I told my husband ‘how can we eat beautiful figs without putting them on cake?’ And I made this Butterscotch cake. Butterscotch is my favorite flavor from childhood but we hardly come across it these days. To get the flavor into the cake, I have used golden syrup. Golden syrup is just so effective to get the caramel-ish flavor into a recipe. You could substitute it with honey, if you do not have golden syrup at home but the taste is not exactly the same. This Buttersctch cake is really easy to make and the batter comes together in one bowl. You could also enjoy it like a tea cake by adding dried figs or fresh pears into the batter and skipping the glaze. The texture is soft, moist and the citrus glaze gives it a nice punch. The figs are a lovely addition to the not-too-sweet cake.
Having said this, our Summer is officially over in less than a week. Makes me sad. But yes, I can do without this supervisory role for some time:-)
Butterscotch Cake With Orange Sour Cream Glaze And Figs
Serves 8
180 g butter, room temperature, softened
2 cups self-raising flour, sifted
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
3 eggs
1/4 cup golden syrup (or honey)
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup almond meal (ground almonds)
1/2 cup dried figs (optional)
Preheat oven to 160 degrees c.(140 degrees C for fan-forced). Grease a 19 cm round cake pan and line the base and sides with baking paper.
Place all the ingredients together in the bowl of your electric mixer excepting the dried figs (if using). Beat on low for 1 minute or until just combined. Beat on high for 3 minutes or until mixture is pale and thick. Pour into prepared pan.
Bake for 1 hour or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean (cover cake with foil if over-browning during cooking). Stand cake in pan for 10 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Once cooled completely, pour over the citrus glaze (recipe below) and allow to set. Serve the cake with fresh figs and grated orange zest.
Orange Sour Cream Glaze
1/4 cup sour cream
11/4 cup icing sugar,sifted
Grated zest of 1 orange (leave some for garnish)
Mix everything together in a medium bowl. Stir until well combined.
Oh wow, that looks gorgeous. Something so pretty about blush-pink figs + cake + charcoal background! Beautiful pictures, must try this recipe! Hannah x
Thank you Hannah! Figs are just so gorgeous:-)
Oh, to be lost in summer and the abundance of fruits and vegetables! I know it’s hard to resist all the colorful produce around you, particularly when you know summer is winding down. I would just love a peek into your fridge! : ) And I love that you used the figs for this cake…what is better than cake! Sounds lovely with the not very sweet cake itself!
Ha ha Monica! One look at my fridge will tell you the season. Thanks lovely:-)
Do you think I could add fresh figs instead of dried figs into the cake? Or would that make the cake too mushy?
Hi, yes you could add fresh figs as well but that would reduce the shelf-life of the cake. The cake shouldn’t turn mushy but the figs will. So if that’s not a problem, you can give it a try. Hope this helps:-)
Beautiful beautiful cake Sonali…I love the sound of the glaze, and yes to the fresh figs…very elegant!
Hope you are enjoying your week
Thanks so much Juliana!
I feel like a cake a lot for this weekend, why not this one? Thank you for sharing
Thanks so much. Glad you liked the cake:-)
This is such a beautiful cake. And this is just my kind of cake since I prefer them not too sweet. My mom has a couple of fig trees in her backyard that yield succulent fruits, but I can’t take advantage of them since a thousands of miles away. I’d love to get my hands on them right now.
Wow! A fig tree..how awesome! I can imagine how exciting it would be to cook with figs from your Mom’s tree..hope you get a chance soon. Thanks so much for stopping by:-)
My dear dear, this cake is just beautiful. This cake sounds so simple and looks absolutely fab. I enjoy using dried figs, gives it a oomph..the fresh gives it such a fresh touch. I totally understand about hoarding on to fresh fruits just to see some go bad in the back:(. Sad that summer is wrapping up..
Hey Sonali, you completely refreshed my memories. I remember being in scouts..and they made us manage traffic once in a while and that was the most nerve wrecking and embarrassing thing. It was so scary.
Yes Ash, that is one thing I cannot bring myself to do..watch beautiful produce go bad! I can imagine how scary it might have been for you to manage traffic…somehow it feels more scarier today when you think about it today. Thanks for your lovely comment dear:-)
Sweet and addictive, this butterscotch cake looks delicious
I love your photos, though I am pretty sure I sound like a broken record now!
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Awww…thank you lovely:-)
This cake is SO BEAUTIFUL. I am drooling over the screen on ALL PHOTOS. I love your childhood story; thank goodness he did not wave back, right? But I am sure he remembered that waves from the cute little girls.
So glad to have found your blog; your photos are inspiring
xoxo
Thanks my dear Pang! So glad to have e-met you. Your photography is outstanding!
There’s nothing like biting into a fresh juicy fig. Love the and like you load up with them when I see them at the store.
This cake is gorgeous, simple but delicious.
Thanks Nazneen! Fig season is so fleeting. I was looking forward to them all Summer and had to load them up on a cake. Hope you are having a great weekend my dear:-)
Lol, that role, traffic police! That cake with all the oozing and topping is just oozome!
Julie & Alesah
Gourmet Getaways xx
Of course you have to put figs on a cake! I so love figs and yours look beautiful with this delicious buttescotch cake, great glaze.
Woah! Incredibly beautiful cake here! And your photography – truly jaw dropping!