Fig & Hazelnut Cake

I’m writing this from my computer! If you remember from my last post, my computer was still in customs three weeks after shipping it from Canada. My uncle works in customs and helped me to finally get it without having to pay the 20% fee for importing electronics (since it was my property anyway and not new).

It’s so nice to be able to work on the big screen again, and very reassuring that it wasn’t destroyed on the trip over here, which is almost definitely because of my friend Sarah’s marvellous packing skills.

I made a hazelnut and rhubarb cake in the spring, much like this one, but I’ve improved the recipe since and decided to share it now with some fall produce. I’d never had fresh figs before we moved here because they weren’t available at home.

I also found some fresh turmeric here so look for a recipe with that soon, too. Turns out fresh figs are pretty great, and perfect for this hazelnut fig cake with the combination of hazelnuts, caramel-like coconut sugar, and olive oil.

If you can’t get fresh figs, though, the base cake is delicious on its own, and I would top it with sliced apples, pears, or stone fruits. The cake itself isn’t particularly sweet but the ground hazelnuts make it quite rich and it’s certainly a dessert.

It’s gently spiced with a hint of cardamom and vanilla for warm fall flavours. This recipe is vegan, but without any special binding agents, and I promise that no one would notice if you didn’t tell them, so it’s perfect to bring to get-togethers or serve to hard-to-please guests.

The abundance of food here is shocking – my parents have a farm at home with fruit trees, but because the climate is so harsh, there just isn’t as much variety. We went to my uncle’s house a few days ago and picked three different types of apples and two types of pears, I have grapes from a friend of Omi’s, and there are quince, pear, apple, and hazelnut trees all growing in Omi’s yard.

They’re just there and no one thinks anything of it. Graham and I found a whole bunch of wild blackberries a few days ago, and there are rose hips and nettle growing everywhere.

It’s not that there aren’t wild foods or fruit trees in Manitoba, there are – I think that it’s because the area I lived in was so full of large-scale agriculture that a lot of it had been destroyed, and then in wilderness zones the animals eat it before we can get to it, or I don’t want to take too much food from the bears and other animals because the winters are so cold. I feel the same kind of awe every time I visit British Columbia, which has a very similar climate to northern Germany.

I have big plans for all of this produce (and my aunt’s juicer).

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