At this time last year I was very sad. It was fig season and there were none to be had. In Germany most of our figs arrive from Turkey and when the harvest yield is small, the best figs remain in Turkey. Understandable of course but I was disappointed none the less.

HURRAY!!! This year figs are back, lots, affordable, and not overripe yet.

When I bought 2 dozen on Friday I had been planning to have them baked on pizza dough with smoked ham, goat cheese and pear slices, I could literally taste it when buying the ingredients. But my son stayed for dinner at a friend’s house and my husband took off for a last minute business trip so there I sat with my figs and no one to eat the with. Oh well I thought I’ll come up with something. And I did.

Food52 has a great Simple Summer Peach Cake recipe, the batter of which I often use in various combinations and fruits throughout the summer. Aside from the usual flour, sugar and eggs, it uses almond flour. I like the taste of walnuts with figs so I did some substitution, doubled the amount of dough, and used some of my delicious Spicy Blackberry Ginger Mint jam to create the checkerboard.

The result is a pretty cake that looks like bulls eyes on a checkerboard. I am quite please with the result.

Here is the recipe adapted from Food52’s Simple Summer Peach Cake recipe.

Checkerboard Fig Cake with Walnuts, Sesame and Blackberry Jam

Checkerboard Fig Cake with Walnuts, Sesame and Blackberry Jam

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups/ 250 grams of raw brown or white sugar plus 1 TBSP extra
• 12 TBSP / 180 grams vegetable-based baking margarine
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup / 235 ml buttermilk or make your own with 1 cup (lactose-free milk) & 1 TBSP lime juice
• 1 TBSP of amaretto-flavored coffee syrup or ½ tsp vanilla & ½ almond extract
• 2 cups / 280 grams flours
• 1 cup / 110 gram walnut pieces
• 1 TBSP sesame seeds
• 2 tsps baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp salt
• 12 figs washed for a 32 cm x 25 cm pan
• about 1 cup of your favorite blackberry jam or make mine (recipe here)

Putting it all together:

Preheat the oven to 200° C / 390° F.

Use some margarine to grease the sides of the pan, then cut a piece of baking paper to fit the bottom of the pan, stick it on and grease it again with more margarine.

Place the walnut pieces in a high-sided mixing bowl and use your immersion blender to chop them into walnut flour, warning if you do it too long it will become sticky like peanut butter so don’t worry if it still has some lumps. Scrape the walnut butter off the blender and then add the flour, sesame seeds, baking powder, baking soda and the salt. Mix well making sure you get the walnut butter stuck to the bottom of the bowl and then set aside.

In a separate bowl, mix the margarine and the sugar with a wooden spoon. Add the eggs, the buttermilk and the amaretto syrup. Use as wire whisk to beat it until it is well mixed. Now take up your wooden spoon again and add the flour mixture bit-by-bit stirring well to combine. Don’t worry if it is lumpy.