Ask a Chef: Cilantro Cafe fig, apple and coconut cakes

Ask a Chef reveals the secrets of those superb dishes you ate in cafes and restaurants and wanted to try yourself.

Cilantro Cafe fig, apple and coconut cakes. Photo by Gregor Richardson.
Cilantro Cafe fig, apple and coconut cakes. Photo by Gregor Richardson.
Cilantro Cafe fig, apple and coconut cakes

Makes 15

Ingredients
200g Turkish figs, cut into quarters
2 tsp baking soda
200ml water
4 medium apples, grated (any good eating apples will do; you can peel them if you want to but not necessary)
360g gluten-free flour
4 tsp baking powder (gluten-free)
250g butter
450g caster sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
Caramel coconut topping
150g butter
190g brown sugar
120ml cream
190g shredded coconut

Method
Place figs in a saucepan with water and baking soda.

Simmer over a medium heat until figs swell up, soften and break down. Cool to room temperature and mix in grated apples.

Sift together flour and baking powder in a large mixing bowl.

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and mix until well combined.

Add butter mix and fig and apple mix to the flour and mix until combined. Don't over-mix.

Spoon into well-greased loose-bottom friand pans. Makes 15 cakes so may require two pans.

Bake for approx 25min at 160degC or until a skewer comes out clean.

While the cakes are baking, put all topping ingredients in a microwave-safe bowl and heat for 30 seconds at a time, stirring in between each until the butter is melted and the ingredients are well combined.

When the cakes are done, remove from oven and gently push down on the top of each to make a slight depression.  Make sure the tops of the cakes are not higher than the pan. 

Spoon about a tablespoon of the topping mix on to each cake, making sure the top is well covered.

Place back in the oven and bake until the topping is a nice deep golden colour.

Remove from the oven and if the topping has spread across the top of the pan in between each cake, use a spoon to scrape it back on top of the cakes.

Cool in the pans for about 10 minutes, then push out each cake and cool on a wire rack.

If you have enjoyed a dish in an Otago cafe or restaurant and would like the recipe, write to Ask a Chef, Features, Otago Daily Times, PO Box 181, Dunedin, fax 474-7422, or email odt.features@odt.co.nz, including your name, address and a daytime telephone number, and we will request it.

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