I brought these wonderful, very ripe, and juicy figs at my farmers market last weekend. I love figs; we had a large tree on our property when I was growing up and I used to sit under it in the summer and eat plenty of them. The sweet, succulent fig is rich in phyto-nutrients, anti-oxidants, and vitamins.
What to do with them? Ok, I need to make a birthday cake for a friend. Why don’t I marry this delicious, sweet fruit with another fave of mine – ginger! Ginger and fig birthday cake, yippee! I gave it a whirl and the result was sublime…
You Will Need:
Base:
1 cup of almonds
½ a cup of coconut
2 thumb size pieces of ginger (finely chopped)
2 teaspoons of ground ginger
A pinch of salt
2 tablespoons of coconut oil
Filling:
2 cups of cashew nuts
1 cup of almond milk
Juice of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons of maple syrup or honey
3 tablespoons of cacao butter
4 large ripe figs
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1-2 thumb size pieces of ginger (finely chopped)
3 teaspoons of ground ginger
¼ of a cup of filtered water
A pinch of salt
What To Do:
The night before:
Soak your cashews in water.
For the base:
- Process the almonds into small pieces with the salt in a food processor or high-speed blender. Add the coconut, ginger, ground ginger, and coconut oil, and give a few pulses until combined. As I don’t have a food processor, I find it easier to blend the almonds into small pieces (but not dust), then mix the nuts with the other ingredients in a bowl.
- Press the base into the bottom of a spring-form 7 inch pan and place into your refrigerator until needed.
For the filling:
- Blend the cashews, almond milk, lemon juice, maple syrup, cacao butter, figs, vanilla, finely chopped ginger, and ground ginger in your blender or food processor until it blends to a smooth velvety mix. Add the filtered water to get a pourable but thick consistency. Blend again until silky smooth.
- Take your base out of the fridge and pour the filling in to the nut base in the pan.
- Place in the freezer for about 2-3 hours until firm.
- Take the cheesecake out of the freezer 1 hour prior to serving and place in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
- Garnish with a sprinkle of ground ginger and fresh figs.
- Serve and enjoy!
