Cook this: Fig, honey and lemon tea cakes from Cannelle et Vanille Bakes Simple

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Our cookbook of the week is Cannelle et Vanille Bakes Simple: A New Way to Bake Gluten-Free by Aran Goyoaga. Tomorrow, we’ll feature an interview with the author.

To try another recipe from the book, check out: Double chocolate fennel-buckwheat crinkle cookies; and glazed lemon, yogurt and olive oil pound cake.

“Really simple and kind of wholesome,” Aran Goyoaga‘s tea cakes are sweetened only by the honey she adds to the batter and the figs she tops them with. Honey adds sweetness, but also brings flavour and helps to achieve an even brown colour during baking.

Texturally, the cakes are on the dense side, so they suit a small presentation. Goyoaga uses a friand mould to bake them, but you could also use a standard or mini-muffin pan.

“I just love having something that’s a little bit dense. Because a lot of my cakes, like the olive oil cakes, they’re very moist,” she says.

“This is more like a dense tea cake and so I love that it’s small — I wouldn’t necessarily want to eat a whole slice of it.”

Even with the brightness of lemon juice and zest, Goyoaga adds, “it’s a more sombre slice of cake.”

Figs will be in season in early June, then again from August until October. In the meantime, try topping the tea cakes with berries, thinly sliced apples or pears, Goyoaga suggests, or a mound of chopped hazelnuts.

“Just hazelnuts will be really textural. And make them really small — in a mini cupcake (pan) — like you get a bite.”

FIG, HONEY AND LEMON TEA CAKES

1 1/4 cups (125 g) almond flour
3/4 cup (75 g) gluten-free oat flour
2 tbsp tapioca starch
2 tbsp finely chopped fresh rosemary
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup (115 g) unsalted butter, dairy-free butter or virgin coconut oil, melted, plus more for greasing
5 tbsp honey
3 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tsp finely grated lemon zest
6 fresh figs, stemmed and halved

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C). Grease the inside of a 12-muffin pan with melted butter.

Step 2

In a large bowl, whisk together all the ingredients except for the figs. Pour the batter into the muffin cups, filling them only halfway. Let the batter sit for 5 minutes. This will activate the baking powder and thicken the batter so when the figs are added, they don’t sink. Top each muffin with half a fig.

Step 3

Bake for 20 to 22 minutes, until the cakes are golden brown, puffed and a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Let the cakes cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then invert onto a plate. The cakes will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for 2 days.

Makes: 12 tea cakes

Recipe and image excerpted from Cannelle et Vanille Bakes Simple: A New Way to Bake Gluten-Free by permission of Sasquatch Books. ©2021 by Aran Goyoaga.

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