“My Mother’s Fig Cake” Recipe from Betty Tarver

“[‘Tis] one of my favorite things my mother, Evelyn, used to make for our family of four in West Columbia, Texas. I was seven years old in 1958 and, partaking along with my two sisters, I can still recall the first taste of this exquisitely moist, spiced fig cake. I wish I had some of her preserves,” remembers Betty Tarver of Marlin, TX.

Fig Cake Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour 1 cup sugar 1 tsp. salt 1 tsp. baking soda 1 tsp. ground cinnamon 1 tsp. ground cloves 1 tsp. nutmeg 1 cup vegetable oil 3 eggs, beaten 3/4 cup buttermilk 2 cups figs preserves, chopped 1 cup chopped nuts

1 tsp vanilla extract

Fig Cake Instructions Preheat the oven to 325°F degrees. Grease and flour one 10-inch tube cake pan.

In a large bowl, stir together dry ingredients: flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg.

Remove 2 tablespoons of flour mixture and place in a small bowl. Add chopped nuts to the flour mixture in that small bowl and toss to coat. Set aside.

Next, add oil to dry ingredients and mix well. Combine into flour mixture the three well-beaten-‘tilfluffy eggs. Stir in buttermilk and vanilla. Mix well, again, to make a thick, smooth batter.

Continue by gently folding in chopped fig preserves and chopped nuts.

Pour cake batter into the greased and floured tube cake pan.

Bake at 325°F for about one hour or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Remove the cake from the oven and after five minutes (while you make the glaze), turn the cake onto a plate.

Glaze Ingredients

1/2 cup buttermilk 1 cup sugar 1 Tbs. light corn syrup ½ teaspoon of baking soda ½ cup soft margarine or butter 1 tsp. vanilla

Glaze Instructions

Combine ingredients except for vanilla, boil over medium heat, stirring constantly for approximately three minutes. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.

Pour glaze while hot over the cake.

Serve and enjoy!