I love fruitcake, dense and loaded with fruit(preferably soaked) and nuts … taking a bite out of it is heavenly. My new Christmas tradition is to bake a rich fruitcake with dry fuits that have been soaked in dark rum and brandy. Last year I promised my hubby that I would make a non alcoholic version just for him and he really enjoyed it. This year we went away for the Christmas holidays to San Francisco and LA and although I made my fruitcake to give my friends as gifts, I never got around to making another non alcoholic cake. On a trip to Trader Joes in December I found these gorgeous Mission figs and I was determined to turn it into a centerpiece. As fate would have it, I also bought an Instant Pot and the idea of steaming a Fig & Walnut cake was born.
This cake is delicious, dense, rich with the flavor and texture of figs and nuts and drizzled with an icing foam that I invented quite by accident when I didn’t add enough icing sugar. With the prep, cook time and the time it takes for the instant pot to heat and cool, you can probably have a piece of this in your mouth in 90 minutes – go FIGure, it’s NUTS.
Recipe:
200 grams diced Figs (I used Mission and Smyrna)
125 grams All-Purpose Flour
1/2 tsp Salt
114 grams Butter room temp – 1 stick, 4 oz
125 grams Sugar ( brown sugar gives a darker color)
4 Eggs
3 tbsp Blackstrap Molasses
1 tbsp Fig jam
1 tsp Orange zest
100 gms diced Walnuts
I tsp Citrus Peel
2 tbsps chopped crystallized Ginger
2 tbsps Milk
Icing foam – 2 tbsps Icing Sugar + 1 tbsp Meringue powder & water to dissolve
Instructions
Cream the butter and add the sugar
Add egg one at a time and keep beating
Add the molasses and the jam
Sieve the flour into the batter and fold
Add orange zest, crystallized ginger and citrus peel
Add the figs and the nuts and fold in
Add the milk
Add to a prepared baking tin
Prepare the Instant Pot with a cup of water
Place the pan on a trivet into the IP
Cover and set to Venting
Set to Pressure Cook or Manual mode for 45 mins
Naturally release the steam
Prepare the icing foam and cover cake when cool
