Rustic Fig & Hazlenut cake. #italyonmymind.

Who doesn’t love a delicious cake with hazelnuts and figs ? This one is very easy ! Lovely to use fresh figs in season …adulterated from italyonmymind

You need for one cake and 25 models:
140g (1 cup) plain flour
125g (one stick) butter, at room temperature
160g (just over 3/4 cup) caster sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons of baking powder
60ml (1/4 cup) milk (optional – replace 20 ml of the milk with 20ml brandy)
125g (1 cup) hazelnuts, ground in the whizzer
6 fresh figs, halved (or more or less depending on the size)

• Preheat oven to 170 degrees.
• Moisterise and line a 20cm diameter cake tin.
• Whizz up the nuts so ground quite finely with a few chunky bits
• Beat the butter and sugar in a food processor until creamy.
• Add the eggs one at a time beating well after each addition.
• Place the mixture in a bowl and add half the flour, mixing well with a wooden spoon.
• Add the milk (or milk and brandy!). Mix until incorporated, then add the rest of the flour and the baking powder.
• Make sure it is all evenly mixed and finally incorporate the hazelnuts.
• Place the mixture in the prepared cake tin.
• Press the fig halves a few centimetres into the cake to any pattern you like, cut surface of the fig side up.
• As the cake rises in the oven, the figs will sink a bit into the cake, so don’t push them all the way down.
• Bake for around 60 minutes.
• The cake is ready when a skewer placed in the centre comes out clean.
• Rest for 15 minutes before turning put of the tin. Serve the cake with a dollop of mascarpone, whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.
• You can also splash some brandy on the cake if you did not put it in while you were cooking (or omit brandy altogether).hic.