Earlier this month a wonderful co-worker made me a birthday cake. Knowing that my mom passed away in February, she made me the kind of cake my mom would have, a white cake with lemon curd filling. It was delicious and so nice of her to remember.
Her birthday was on Tuesday and we were both out of the office, so I decided yesterday to go home and make her a birthday cake and bring it in. I know she likes Spice Cake, so I found a recipe for a Spiced Figgy Cake on this
website. I've made some of their other cakes and decided it sounded good.
I stop by the grocery store on the way home from work to pick up the ingredients. Buttermilk, powdered sugar, cream cheese, and fig preserves. Fig preserves? Whatever. Look in the jam section and can't find fig preserves but see a fig chutney. I'm thinking, it'll be a little chunkier but it might work, so I throw it into the cart, pay for my groceries, and head home.
So, right about the time I should be getting ready for bed, I start mixing up the cake. Everything is going well until the time to add the fig preserves and then I start having doubts. I read the label:
Fig Raisen Chutney - Ingredients: Pears, Fig Paste with Fig Concentrate, Water, Onions, Brown Sugar, Cider Vinegar, Raisins, Sugar, Candied Ginger, Dried Plums, Balsamic Vinegar, Canola Oil, Ginger, Salt, and Curry Powder.
Onions??? Curry powder??? Decide the chutney isn't going to work in my cake but pick up some other ideas about raisins and plums. Surely I have raisins and plums. I usually have lots of extra stuff in the pantry but no raisins, no plums. Ah, dates. Open dates and decide little bugs have infiltrated and toss dates into garbage. I finish the cake minus any fruit additions. After all, she did say Spice Cake was her favorite and the recipe did make a nice spice cake. It tastes delicious frosted with cream cheese frosting and she and my other co-workers laugh at my Figgy Cake story. Some day, after I locate fig preserves, I will attempt the Spiced Figgy Cake again.
~Jane
