This is a 'not so common' chocolate cake that has healthy honey and
dried figs in the ingredients. After all, if you are going to eat cake,
you might as well be getting some nutrition with it, right? Use a hand a
mixer or food processor to simplify the preparation process. Otherwise
you will wear your arm out before you finish the recipe.
1 1/3 cups of honey
1 cup of strong brewed tea
1 tablespoon of grated lemon rind (can use orange)
2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
2 teaspoons of baking powder
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon of ground allspice
1 cup of diced dried figs
4 medium eggs
1/4 cup of vegetable oil
1 tablespoon of vanilla extract
1 cup of granulated white sugar
85 g (3 ounces) of semisweet chocolate
Bring the honey to a boil in a saucepan and remove from the heat
immediately. Add in the strong tea and the grated lemon or orange rind
and set the saucepan off to the side to cool a bit.
Whisk together the all purpose flour, the baking powder and baking soda,
the cinnamon, the salt, the ground ginger and allspice in a small mixing
bowl. Stir in the diced dried figs and set that off to the side.
In a larger mixing bowl, beat the 4 eggs until they become foamy. This
should take you 4 or 5 minutes. Once the eggs have become frothy, beat
in the vegetable oil and the vanilla extract. Next, beat in the sugar a
couple of tablespoons at a time until the mixture thickens and becomes
bubbly. After that, fold in the flour in 3 separate steps, and the honey
in 2 separate steps, alternating back and forth from one to the other
until the batter has become thin.
Next, pour the batter into a well oiled or buttered 25 cm (10 inch)
Bundt cake pan (can use a tube pan). Place the pan in the center of a
preheated 160 degree C (325 degree F) oven and bake for one hour to 70
minutes. Check often as you get near the end of cooking. If a wooden
toothpick stuck into the center comes out clean, your cake is done.
Remove the cake and let it cool in the pan on a wire rack for a half
hour. Loosen the edges of the cake with a knife and turn it upside down
and empty onto the rack to finish cooling completely.
While the cake is cooling, chop the semisweet chocolate. Place it in a
bowl over hot (not boiling) water and let it melt. Once your Chocolate
Cake with Figs and Honey has cooled down you can pour this melted
chocolate mixture over the top of it for more taste and decoration.
