Fruit & Nut Snacking Cake

Ingredients

Instructions

1. Heat the oven to 350F. Spread the nuts onto a sheet tray and pop them in the oven to toast while it heats up. Depending on your oven, it can take anywhere from 6 to 12 minutes to get golden and smell nutty. Cool slightly, then coarsely chop (you want to keep it chunky).
2. Meanwhile, quarter the figs, remove any stems, and transfer them to a small bowl.
3. Use a Microplane grater to finely grate 1 teaspoon orange zest, and set aside. Cut the orange in half and squeeze the juice over the figs. Set aside and toss occasionally while you prep the rest of the cake.
4. Brush or rub a loaf pan with olive oil. If you don’t trust your pan's unstickability, line the bottom and two long sides with a sheet of parchment.
5. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. In a medium bowl, whisk together the reserved zest, olive oil, eggs, yogurt (or sour cream), and honey until thoroughly combined.
6. Pour the wet mixture over the flour mixture and use a stiff silicone spatula to stir together until no dry flour remains (do not over-mix). Use a spoon to scoop the figs out of the orange juice and add to the batter along with the nuts, then gently fold to combine (don’t add the remaining orange juice).
7. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and tap the pan against the counter to evenly distribute. Bake until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean, about 50 to 60 minutes.
8. Cool completely in the pan, then run a butter knife along the edges to loosen the cake and tip out. Serve thick slices at room temperature or toasted in butter and drizzled with honey. For rusks to serve with runny cheese, freeze the cake overnight, then cut it into ¼-inch thick slices, and bake at 275F until totally crisp and dry.