upside down fig and mascarpone cake
6 Apr 2026
Sometimes my fridge is filled with bits and pieces that need to be used in a hurry. I had some mascarpone that was close to it's expiry date and in the freezer were the leftover figs from the fig galette I made a few weeks ago. I hunted through my recipe books for a recipe that used both ingredients.
I found a lovely recipe for a fig and mascarpone cake in Skye McAlpine's book, A Table in Venice. I was going to top the cake with fig slices until I found a few other recipes online that topped the cake with figs flavoured with Marsala. That sounded like a good idea to me so I decided to combine the two recipes and came up with this upside down fig cake.
Here's the recipe for you that makes a 17 cm cake. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced, you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.
Upside down fig and mascarpone cake – adapted from a recipe from A Table in Venice by Skye McAlpine and a recipe from Olive magazine.
Marsala figs
6 figs halved lengthways or quartered depending on the size of the figs.
2 tbs caster sugar
45 mls Marsala
Cake
125g room temperature mascarpone
100g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 room temperature eggs
125g self-raising flour
½ tsp baking powder
a good pinch of sea salt
4-6 fresh figs, stems removed, chopped into chunks
Method
Heat the oven to 180°C, conventional. Grease and line a 17-cm cake tin with baking paper. If using a springform tin, wrap the base with foil to prevent any leaks.
Put the halved figs into a bowl with 1 tbs of the caster sugar and the Marsala, and toss well. Set aside for 15 minutes.
In a large bowl, beat the mascarpone, sugar and vanilla together until creamy then add the eggs and mix until well combined. Sift in the flour, baking powder and salt and stir until well combined. Gently stir in the fig pieces.
Scatter the bottom of the tin with the remaining caster sugar and then arrange the fig halves, cut-side down. Carefully spoon the batter into the prepared tin and place the tin on a baking tray on the middle shelf of the oven, to catch any drips.
Bake for 1 hour or until golden, risen and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. The cake is quite delicate, so cool the cake in the tin for 10-15 minutes, before turning out onto a wire rack.
Pour over any remaining marsala syrup and leave to cool before cutting into slices. I served my slice with a dollop of double cream.
The marsala figs are genius but I wasn't sold on the texture of the cake. I think I'll revisit the recipe using a tried and true butter cake batter for the base, so watch this space.
See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.
Bye for now,
Jillian