turkish yoghurt and fig cake

I love my fig tree immensely.   It creates so much shade in our backyard that it's almost like another room under there...and then at this time of year they give a great joy of producing one of my favourite fruits.  I'm known to just stand under it, and gorge myself silly on fig after fig, sharing the joy with my daughter who has taken my lead. 


But every so often, I think they deserve to be used in a different way.  Enter this recipe and I cannot believe my luck when I stumbled across it in blog land a little while ago and hung on patiently waiting for my figs to ripen.  This cake combines so many things I love, greek yoghurt, lemon and fig.  How could I resist. 


It has a consistency like a cheese cake and the lovely sharpness that goes well with the sweetness of the figs.  I didn't have any orange blossom water, so used a little extra lemon and it was still fantastic! 


Enjoy! 

Turkish yogurt cake with figs

Ingredients (for a 22cm/9-inch spring pan):

4 large eggs, separated
1/2 cup caster sugar
3 tablespoons Plain Flour
1 1/2 cups  Greek yogurt
grated zest + juice of 1/2 lemon

1 1/2 teaspoons orange blossom water

  4 fresh figs, halved 

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. In a large bowl, beat the egg yolks with the sugar until creamy and light. Add the flour and mix until combined. 

2. Add the yogurt, lemon zest and juice and mix until combined. Add orange blossom water if you have it. 

3. Whisk egg whites using electric beaters until firm and fluffy Gently fold into yogurt mixture until combined, from the bottom to the top, using a spatula.
4. Grease a spring-form cake pan with butter. Pour mixture into the pan and arrange the fig slices on top. face up. Bake it in the oven for 50 minutes or until the top is browned. The cake will rise  a lot  but will decrease when removed from the oven. Let cool before serving.