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Fig Cake
1/2 pkg. figs 1 C sugar 1/2 C butter 2 eggs 2 C flour 1 C raisins 1 t soda 1 C boiling water Put figs and raisins through food chopper, pour over them the cup of boiling water in which the soda has been dissolved. When cool, add sugar, butter, eggs and flour. Bake in two layers and put together with chocolate icing. Figs may be omitted and 2 cups raisins used instead.
Mrs. B. H. Whitman. 1 C sugar 1 egg 3 T melted butter 1½ C flour
A plain butter cake leavened entirely by soda reacting with the acidity of the dried fruit and the hot soaking water. It is straightforward once a few community-cookbook shorthands are decoded.
- The stray list at the endThe four lines after "Mrs. B. H. Whitman" — sugar, egg, melted butter, flour — appear to be the opening ingredients of the next recipe, run together with this one in the original setting. They are not part of the fig cake, which already lists its own sugar, butter, eggs and flour.
- "1/2 pkg. figs"Dried figs were sold boxed or in pressed layer packs, in sizes that varied by brand; half a package is probably somewhere around 8 oz of dried figs, stems trimmed. For the raisins: 1 cup is about 5-6 oz.
- Food chopperA hand-cranked meat grinder. A food processor pulsed in short bursts does the job; aim for a coarse mince, not a paste, and dust the figs with a spoonful of the measured flour if they clump.
- The soda and boiling waterDissolve the teaspoon of soda in the boiling water and pour it over the ground fruit. It will foam. Let it cool to room temperature before the eggs go in, exactly as written, or they will scramble.
- No baking powder, no saltThe soda is the only leavening and there is no salt at all. A quarter teaspoon of salt improves it noticeably; the rise depends on getting the batter into a preheated oven promptly once mixed.
- Method and pansThe original simply adds sugar, butter, eggs and flour to the cooled fruit; if you prefer, cream the butter and sugar, beat in the eggs, then alternate the flour with the fruit mixture. Two 8- or 9-inch round pans, greased and floured or lined.
- Oven and timeThe original gives none. Bake at 350F for 25-30 minutes for 8-inch layers, until a tester comes out clean and the edges pull from the pan.
- Chocolate icingAny cooked or confectioners'-sugar chocolate frosting suits it. The cake is dense and fruit-heavy, so a thin layer between and on top is enough.
- YieldOne two-layer cake, 10-12 servings. It keeps well wrapped for three or four days; the fruit keeps the crumb moist.
Fig cakes turn up steadily in American church and club cookbooks from the 1890s onward, and their appearance says a good deal about what was in the pantry. Dried figs, long imported in pressed layers from Smyrna and by then also grown commercially in California, were an everyday grocery item rather than a luxury, sold by the box and used interchangeably with raisins and dates in puddings, bars and layer cakes. The note that "figs may be omitted and 2 cups raisins used instead" is the practical voice of a contributor who expected cooks to bake from whatever was on the shelf. Attribution to Mrs. B. H. Whitman was both a credit and a guarantee.