• ¾ cup all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 5 large eggs, at room temperature
• ¾ cups sugar
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup strawberry jam

Method:

Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees F 

In a large mixing bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder & salt. Cut in butter and stir in half the walnuts, all the raisins and all the cranberries. Add the eggs, milk & vanilla. 

Mix just until ingredients are blended and then place in a greased and floured 9 x 5 loaf pan or long bread pan.

Sprinkle remaining walnuts over top. 

Bake at 350 degree oven for 60 -70 minutes.

This cake came together when we combined the idea of marbled brownies with the concept of the soft gingerbread cake. The result is a very moist and flavorful cake that is sweet but not too sweet. This cake would be perfect for the holidays - it has a nice flavor and is quite rich, so it works great to cut in small squares. Serve this cake with some glögg, eggnog or apple cider for a real Christmas or Thanksgiving treat.

20 servings

Cream cheese mix:
400 g cream cheese, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¾ cup powdered sugar
2 eggs

Cake batter:
100g butter, melted & cooled
1 1/3 cup flour
2 eggs
¾ cup sugar
2/3 cup milk
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 tbsp molasses
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 ½ teaspoons ground ginger
½ teaspoon cloves
½ teaspoon allspice

Method:

Spray a long pan with high sides with cooking spray, cover with parchment paper and spray again with the spray to cover all sides.

Whip together the cream cheese, vanilla, powdered sugar and eggs until a smooth batter. Put aside. In a separate bowl, whip together sugar and eggs until fluffy. Add milk, spices, baking powder, flour and melted butter. Mix together, but be careful no to over work the batter.

Pour ¾ of the cake batter in the pan. Smooth out, then pour the cream cheese mixture on top. Finish off with the rest of the cake batter. With a skewer, marble the cake by integrating the two mixes and creating a pattern.

Bake in a 325 degree oven for about 35-45 minutes, or until a scewer comes out clean, but the internal temperature doesn’t go above 145. Let cool slightly, then empty on to a baking rack and let cool completely. Cut in small squares.

• 1/2 cup AP flour
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 8 tbsp butter, melted
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract

Moist, nutty, rich and oh so flavorful are some ways you could describe this fig, almond and chocolate cake. If you're trying to find a cake that doesn't consist mainly of flour but instead is rich in nuts and flavor, then this may be it.

To make this cake properly, ideally you should have an old fashioned almond grinder. This grinder clamps down to a table or counter and you put in the nuts and then spin the mechanism. This in turn grinds down almonds to an almost powder state that isn't hard at all. Of course, these grinders are not easy to come by, so chances are you don't have one at home. If that's the case, then you could process the almonds in a food processor as finely as possible, or use almond flour.

We used green figs here, local from the farmer's market, however mission figs would also be wonderful, if not better! If you don't have any figs to use, you could very well use peaches, blueberries or plums to mention a few options. Beware that this batter is rather firm, it almost feels like cookie dough as opposed to cake batter!

We served this cake with some whipped cream which was absolutely perfect. This cake is so rich, flavorful and different from most other cakes around, it's definitely worth a try if you're in the mood for something out of the norm.

Fig, almond & chocolate cake:

• 230 g almonds (about 1 2/3 cup)
• 200 g butter (14 tbsp), room temperature
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• zest from 1 orange
• 1/3 cup flour
• 100 g dark chocolate
• about 6 fresh figs