Sticky fig cake

For reasons that are too tedious to go into, I have been faced with the challenge of creating a vegan menu recently - not something that comes easily in this household, with its love of all things dairy and a passion for fresh eggs.
But I have never been shy of meeting a challenge, be it rock climbing or motorbike riding, so vegan cooking was simply going to go on the list.

Vegan main courses were fairly straightforward, admittedly I haven't come up with a decent cauliflower cheese, but we have had a number of vegan dishes which didn't even register as being of "special dietary interest".
It was puddings that proved the hardest...... you will already have seen a number of puddings on this blog and without checking, I can be pretty sure that every single one contains at least one prohibited ingredient.
It has to be admitted that some experiments are best glossed over, suffice to say that it's lucky some of our garden birds aren't fussy.
However, we did enjoy a treacle tart, with a pastry made from vegetable suet and filo tarts filled with cashew and pistachio cream and topped with poached apricots and, for the purists, maple syrup and the less pure, honey.

That said, the weather is getting colder and we were craving a proper autumnal pud, so the big challenge was to come up with a variation of sticky toffee pudding and this is the result. And for those of you who are not following a vegan diet, I have included the non-vegan alternative ingredients too.
I didn't tell all my testers that this was vegan, just to gauge the response and I am pleased to report that it got an all round thumbs up and surprise when it was revealed to have no animal products in it.

CAKE
4oz vegan margarine (or butter if you don't want a vegan version)

4 oz sugar

1 banana

2 oz soft dried figs
4 tblsp soaked chia seed jelly (or 2 eggs if you don't want a vegan version)

4 oz self rising flour

1 tsp baking powder

6 dried figs for decoration

Preheat the oven to 170ºC
Put the margarine/butter, sugar, banana and figs into a food processor and mix until smooth and fluffy.
Add the chia/eggs and beat again.
Fold in the flour, mixed with the baking powder.

Spoon into a greased 10" Prospector pan or 8½" cake tin
Split open the reserved figs and put them on top of the cake batter
Place into the oven and bake for approx 30 minutes, until the top springs back when pressed with your finger.
Set aside while you make the sauce.

SAUCE

4 oz sugar

Juice of 1 orange

2oz dried figs soaked for 30 min in 6 fl oz hot water. 

Put the sugar into a saucepan over a medium heat.
Cook gently until the sugar has melted and turned a rich brown.
CAREFULLY pour in the orange juice and continue to cook until the caramel has completely dissolved in the juice.
Add the fig purée and simmer for 5 - 10 minutes until it is a consistency to your liking.
Slice the cake and pour over the sauce.  This can served as it is or with cream, (vegan) yogurt or cashew cream.

© Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2016

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk