#pink peppercorns
OK, I’ll admit it. This sounds more like something from one of the early medical books I deal with at work all day than it does like a scrummy cake. But actually, it’s a bit of a hit, tastebud wise, so I’m recording it for posterity.
Inspiration came from a forgotten bag of dried figs that need using up. Contemplating them, I found myself thinking of the pot of under-used but much-loved pink peppercorns lurking in the spices box. (I think they fell into my basket in the Indian spice shop on Drummond St, but it may have been somewhere else.) A bit of Googling revealed that I wasn’t completely out of my tree – Ruby Tandoh has a black pepper fig roll recipe – so I launched ahead.
The resulting cake is spicy and soft, sweet but not over-powering and a bit, well, peppery. In a good way.
For the cake
4oz dried figs
½ tsp pink peppercorns
½ tsp vanilla essence
2 eggs
4oz margarine or butter
2oz light brown muscavado sugar
2oz soft dark brown sugar
1 large dessert spoon golden syrup
1 dessert spoon black treacle
3oz rye flour
3oz plain flour
3 ½ tsps baking powder
For the icing
Cream cheese, icing sugar, a tsp ground pink peppercorns (I’d stopped measuring by this point)
Preparation
- Day before: soak the figs in enough hot water to cover them.
- On the day: line a 1lb loaf tin; pre-heat oven to 180C (electric), 160C (fan) gas mark 4ish?
Method
- Add the ½ tsp of peppercorns to the figs; blend them with a hand-held blender; then beat in the eggs and vanilla.
- In a saucepan, melt the margarine/butter, sugar, syrup and treacle over gentle heat until combined; allow to cool a little.
- While the sugar mixture is cooling, mix the flours and baking powder together.
- Carefully mix the warm mixture into the fig mixture, then beat in flours and baking powder.
- Cook in the over for 30 minutes until well-risen and a skewer comes out clean.
Icing
Bash up the peppercorns. Beat some cream cheese with some icing sugar until it resembles cream cheese icing. Mix in some peppercorns and use some to decorate top of cake.
