Nancy, You Sure Are Neat! (Upside-Down Fig Upside Down Cake)

It's Nancy's Birthday!

Do you know Nancy Romero? You should, you really should. Her hair always smells like happy apples and she owns one of those backpacks with a water bottle connected to a giant hose/straw built in. She deserves a cake. She actually needs cake because she bikes a gazillion miles a day.

No seriously, Nancy is a very wonderful person.

For her birthday I thought about making Nancy Cake again but I think the occasion called for a bit of celebratory experimentation. You may have noticed that I am obsessed with figs. I wanted to make a hazelnut fig upside down cake but very stupidly placed the figs upside down, creating an upside down-upside down cake. This was a shame because it would have looked so pretty with the open fig flesh all caramelized. And because I placed the open flesh into the batter I am scared that the cake became too moist with fig juices. I'm going to blame my stupidity on lack of sleep. My body keeps waking me up at 7:30 in the morning for no reason, even though I haven't been able to fall asleep before 3 a.m. lately.

I hope it tasted okay. The problem with baking birthday cakes is that you can't swipe a bite and test if they turned out well. You just have to hope for the best.

Oh also, while I was making this cake this morning I must have been making too much noise trying to get rid of air bubbles in my batter and the people living below me came up to complain. They thought I was angry at them and was trying to send them a message with my loud noises. It was embarrassing.

Happy Birthday Nancy Romero.

Ingredients:

Topping:

1/4 cup chopped hazelnuts

25 figs, depending on size (halved)

1 stick of butter (1/2 cup)

3/4 cup of brown sugar (I used dark because that's what I had but I think golden would be better)

Cake:

1 cup buttermilk

2 cups and 2 tablespoons of all purpose or cake flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 stick of butter (1/2 cup)

2 eggs

1 cups of sugar

1. preheat oven to 350

2. melt the butter for the topping over low heat

3. add the brown sugar and whisk together until fully incorporated

4. pour the butter and brown sugar mixture into a greased 10 inch cake pan

5. sprinkle the hazelnuts over the brown sugar syrup

6. arrange the figs halves, open flesh side down

7. set aside pan

8. in a large bowl beat the sugar and butter together until pale and fluffy

9. add the eggs one at a time

10. add the vanilla extract

11. sift together the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder

12. alternate 3 separate additions of the flour mixture and buttermilk into the egg/sugar/butter mixture

13. pour the batter into the pan and over the figs

14. tap the pan down on a hard surface to get rid of air bubbles

15. bake in the oven for about 30 to 40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out cleanly and the top of the cake in golden brown (it looks almost like the color of cornbread)

16. let the cake cool for 10 minutes

17. place a flat pan or plate over the top of the cake pan and then flip

18. the juices will run down the side of the cake, this is a good thing

19. let cool before serving