Easy Fresh Fig Cake With Hazelnuts (Gluten-Free, Sugar-Free)

This gluten-free and sugar-free fresh fig cake is perfect for the fig season. Fresh figs are delicious and healthy but highly perishable, especially if they are untreated, and picked ripe from the tree.

My parents have a fig tree, and keeping up with the harvest is hard. This moist, delicious, and naturally sweet cake is what we make whenever we have a lot of fresh figs on hand.

Why we love this fresh fig cake

It’s naturally sweet: ripe figs are incredibly sweet, so they are perfect to make a sugar-free dessert or sweet treat.

It’s a great way to use ripe figs when you can’t keep up with the harvest. If you have a fig tree, you know what I’m talking about.

It’s a healthy cake: made with a mix of gluten-free and lectin-free flour, sugar-free and dairy-free, this fig cake will accommodate many diets.

It’s easy to make: this is an upside-down cake that doesn’t require any special techniques. Just make sure you use the right baking dish.

It’s delicious: moist, rich, and naturally sweet, despite having no sugar. A yummy treat during the fig season.

Ingredients to make this gluten-free fresh fig cake

• 1 tablespoon coconut oil, for greasing the dish
• about 16 fresh figs, quartered
• 1/2 cup ground, roasted hazelnuts

DRY INGREDIENTS:

• 8 tablespoons chestnut flour
• 8 tablespoons almond flour
• 2 tablespoons coconut flour
• 4 tablespoons shredded coconut
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• pinch of salt (don’t add salt if the hazelnut butter has salt in it)

WET INGREDIENTS:

• 2 big pastured eggs
• 4 tablespoons hazelnut butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• zest from one organic lemon
• 250ml full-fat coconut milk

Check out my shop page for all specialty items used in lectin-free cooking, organized by categories.

Substitutions: You can replace the chestnut flour with tigernut flour, or use only almond and coconut flour. However, keep in mind that both tigernut and chestnut flour are naturally sweet. So if you don’t use them, you might have to add a sweetener to the cake.

How to make this delicious fig cake

• Preheat the oven to 350F and prepare a baking dish. For this cake, I use a shallow PYREX of approx. 7 cm x 28 cm or 7 inch x 11 inch. The dish needs to be shallow (about 1 inch), so you can flip the cake easily. Alternatively, you can use a dish with a smaller surface but taller walls (in this cake, baking could take a little longer). The important thing is for the cake filling to be at level with the walls.
• Prepare the dish by generously coating it with coconut oil and arranging the figs on the bottom to cover it fully. Sprinkle the hazelnuts on top of the figs saving some to sprinkle when the cake is ready and turned upside down.
• Mix the dry ingredients in a small bowl.
• Mix the wet ingredients in a large bowl.
• Add the flour gradually to the wet mix and incorporate it into the liquid.
• If the batter seems too wet, you can add more coconut flour. The figs will release liquid when baked, and you don’t want the batter on top to be too moist. The batter will need to be spooned on top of the figs; it will not be runny.
• Level the batter and bake the cake on the middle rack for about 30 minutes or until the cake is no longer soft to touch.
• Let it cool down for about 20 minutes before you turn it upside down, with the help of a platter or cutting board. Check first the sides to see if there is any resistance. This cake should come out easily from the dish if the dish is well coated with coconut oil. Sprinkle with more hazelnuts on top. Serve warm or cold.

How to serve this fig cake

Have this cake as a dessert, or next to your coffee or tea. You can eat it after you make it, or after it has been refrigerated.

I tend to prefer cakes when they are cold, especially during summer.

This fresh fig cake was inspired by a similar recipe, the Sugar-Free and Gluten-Free Rhubarb Cake.

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