Gluten Free Almond Fig Cake with Molasses Caramel Sauce and Commandaria Wine

Figs are some of the most remarkable fruits: jammy, indulgent, oh-so-sweet but never cloying, rich, but impeccably fresh when just-picked. Which is part of the reason I was so excited to make this gluten free fig cake. But ALSO because, not only is this easy but elegant bundt packed with fresh figs, it’s also heavenly with toasted almonds, molasses, honey, browned butter, and smothered in a simple but astoundingly-good molasses and honey caramel sauce that comes together in under 10 minutes on the stove top. Who could say no to that? The mix of flavors in this cake comes to us from a brand new Wine & Dessert pairing with our friend over in Vienna, Austria, Iker Berasaluce! Iker is completing incredibly-high-level wine tasting and expert training (the Austrian version of a sommelier) and we’ve teamed up with him for four other Wine & Dessert pairings earlier this year that were SO DANG FUN. Iker is not only brilliant with wine, he’s got a PhD in Chemistry, so he can wax poetic about the actual reasons behind why wines taste/look/smell like what they do. This time, Iker already had a wine in mind – one gifted to him by a mutual friend of ours – the Commandaria, a deep amber sweet wine made exclusively in Cyprus from traditions dating back to the 11th century! Thankfully, I found one bottle of Commandaria available in California online and ordered it so that I could taste the pairing as well once I developed a recipe to pair with it – as you see below.

How did I land on so many flavors for the cake? Tasting notes! These wine and dessert pairings with Iker have been so fun because they offer the challenge of not only developing a new recipe (which I do quite often), but developing one that matches with something else. In this case, Iker sent over a list of the top tasting notes of a Commandaria and I used those to craft the cake you see in the photos: caramel, vanilla, honey, molasses, fig, almond were the ones that stuck out to me (there were a few other top ones like leather and forest floor that were a bit too abstract for me to work with ingredient wise), so I ran with it! The resulting cake has a hint of molasses depth and tang, with a soft, autumnal caramel sauce, lots of jammy fig notes, and the toasty, nutty, caramely hints from toasted almonds and browned butter. The extra-fun bit about these projects with Iker is that we both get the wine and we both make the recipe I develop! So I got to make and share them both with family in Oregon (including Kendra!), and Iker got ot make and share them with 9 of his friends at a dinner party in Vienna! Iker and I did a live tasting of both the wine and cake so check out either of our IGTVs to watch!

Quick tips for getting your cake out of your bundt pan in one piece!

1. Butter the heck out of your pan! I used an entire 1/2 cup (one stick) of room temp salted butter, making sure that every crevice/cranny in the bundt pan was generously covered in butter
2. Flour the buttered bundt! This essentially means tossing some extra gluten free flour into your pan and tipping it around so that a fine layer of flour sticks to the butter, then tapping out the exess
3. Use a bundt pan with minimal ridging! There are lots of fun shapes out there, but stick with the classic rounded bundt pans for this cake because the add ins (figs and almonds) will stick into the crevices of more elaborate bundts
4. Let the cake cool COMPLETELY – and I mean COMPLETELY – before turning it out. If you’re using a heavy, traditional bundt pan, it will take HOURS to cool. I kept checking mine but felt a tiny bit of warmth so waited until it was absolutely cool – this helps strengthen the structure of your cake so that there’s less of a chance that it will break off or stick when you turn it out.

Other Wine & Dessert pairings were: this yuzu tart with sauternes white French dessert wine, this chocolate pecan caramel tart with tawny port, this poached pineapple upside down cake with Royal Tokaji Hungarian sweet wine, and this triple chocolate raspberry cake with French Banyuls sweet red wine!

Print Recipe

5 from 3 votes

Gluten Free Almond Fig Cake with Molasses Caramel

This easy bundt is the elegant dessert you need for any late summer gathering, packed with toasted almonds, figs, and topped with a molasses honey caramel sauce

Prep Time1 minute min

Cook Time50 minutes mins

Cooling tim2 hours hrs

Course: Dessert, Snack

Cuisine: American

Diet: Gluten Free

Keyword: almond, bundt, bundt cake, caramel, easy, fig, gluten free, molasses

Servings: 10 people

Calories: 450kcal

Author: Amelia Farber

Equipment

• 10-Cup bundt pan (I recommend one without tons of small grooves, I used a traditional heavy bundt pan, no fancy shapes)
• Medium saucepan
• Large frying pan

Ingredients

For the cake:

• 4 large eggs
• ¾ Cup salted butter browned – instructions below
• ½ Cup vegetable oil
• ¾ Cup white sugar
• ¾ Cup packed brown sugar
• 1 Tbsp honey
• 1 Tbsp molasses
• 1 Cup buttermilk
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 Cups gluten free 1-1 flour mix containing xanthan gum
• 1 Cup packed blanched almond flour
• ¾ tsp salt
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 Cup toasted sliced almonds instructions below – roughly chopped
• 1 ½ Cup chopped fresh figs stems removed, cut into small, 1cm pieces
• 1/2 Cup room temp butter to grease the bundt pan
• ¼ Cup gluten free 1-1 flour mix to flour the bundt pan
• 5-8 additional fresh figs for decoration
• ¼ Cup additional toasted sliced almonds for decoration

For thee caramel sauce:

• ½ Cup salted butter
• ½ Cup packed brown sugar
• 1 Tbsp molasses
• 2 Tbsp honey
• 1 Cup plus 2 Tbsp heavy cream
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• ⅛ tsp salt

Instructions

• First, make your browned butter! In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, melt the 3/4 cup of salted butter and stir constantly until melted and simmering. Continue to simmer, on medium heat, for at least a few minutes, until the popping and hissing sounds have completely subsided (this is the water in the butter burning off – you’ll know once it’s silent). Continue to cook, stirring constantly, until the butter reaches a deep amber color and smells nutty or caramelly. The butter may foam, so keep stirring/lifting up spoonfuls of the butter to see the color. The browned milk solids will foam up in the center of the pan – once it does that- immediately take off the burner and let sit for a few minutes, then pour (scrape ALL of the brown bits – that’s the flavor!) into a heat-proof small bowl and let it cool to just above room temp (still liquid).
• Then toast your sliced almonds! In a large frying pan over medium-low heat, pour your sliced almonds (about 1 ¼ cup) in and let them toast. Stir them occasionally (ever 10 seconds or so) with a spatula or wooden spoon until the sliced almonds start to turn light brown and smell nutty. Once they’re mostly lightly-browned, remove from heat and pour into a heat-proof bowl to cool. Once cool, roughly chop 1 cup of them so that they’re in smaller pieces to put into your cake batter.
• Then, make your cake! Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and generously grease a 10-cup bundt pan with about a ¼ Cup (or more) of salted, room temp (not melted) butter. The more butter, the better, especially if your bundt pan has lots of grooves/nooks and crannies. The key to not having your bundt cake stick to the pan is LOTS of butter. Once lots of butter is coating the inside, toss in about ¼ cup or more of gluten free flour mix and tilt the pan around so that the flour sticks to every butter-coveed surface, then bang the pan, upside down, against a sink or counter to get rid of any excess flour. Set the pan aside (not by the oven or the butter will melt inside the pan.
• Then, in a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, white sugar, and brown sugar (packed into the cups so it’s not loose). Add in the honey and molasses and whisk until smooth. Then add in ½ Cup of the liquid, cooled browned butter (stir it up first so that you’re pouring in the browned bits!), the vegetable oil, buttermilk, and vanilla extract and whisk to combine. Finally, add in the gluten free 1-1 flour mix, the blanched almond flour (again packed into the cup so that it isn’t loose), baking soda, baking powder, and salt, and whisk until just combined (do NOT over-mix or your cake won’t rise as much). Finally, fold in the 1 cup of chopped toasted sliced almonds, and the 1 ½ cups of chopped figs (stems removed, chopped into 1cm pieces) until just-combined. Then pour the batter into the heavily-buttered and floured bundt pan.
• Bake the cake for 45-50 minutes or until the top of the cake is hard to the touch and a skewer inserted into the center of one side of the bundt comes out clean! Remove from oven and cool on a cooling rack for at least an hour (mine was a heavy bundt pan so it took three hours) until the pan is COMPLETELY cool (this is also a major tip for how to have your cake not stick to the pan – wait for it to cool! Even if it’s a little warm on the outside, wait!).
• While the cake is cooling, make your caramel sauce! In a medium, heavy-bottom saucepan, add in the ½ cup of salted butter, brown sugar, molasses, and honey. Heat over medium-low and begin whisking as the butter melts. Continue to whisk until the mixture has completely combined and looks smooth (about 45 seconds). Then, while whisking constantly, slowly add in the cream. Once it’s all been added and is combined, stop stirring and let the mixture simmer (it will be bubbling quite a lot) for 5 minutes. Once five minutes is up, turn off heat and whisk in the salt and vanilla extract. Then pour the caramel sauce into a heat-proof bowl and let cool a bit – it can still be warm when you pour it over your cake! It will seem very liquidy while it’s hot, but it will thicken as it cools.
• Once your cake is completely cool, carefully turn the pan upside down and your cake should come out of the bundt pan. Place on a plate and pour the caramel sauce over the cake (you can save the excess for individual slices). Decorate with the leftovers sliced toasted almonds and sliced fresh figs!

Tag @sisterssansgluten on Instagram if you snap a photo of your cake!

Food photography and styling by Amelia Farber