Mevrouw Cupcake

 

As you are probably well aware, the whole point of Tuesdays with Dorie is to bake our way through Dorie Greenspan's baking bible, Baking: From My Home to Yours. Every week a different member of TWD chooses the recipe of the week and we all give it a go, posting about our experiences on the following Tuesday. I love the fact that I'm working my way through an entire cookbook, a task that until now, I've never accomplished. Hell, I have cookbooks on my bookshelf that I've never made even one recipe from, for that matter. The only draw-back to this otherwise fabulous initiative is that you're not always going to like every recipe and you're not always going to be in the mood for the work that some recipes may require.

I hate to say it, but when I read the recipe for this cake, I felt pretty lukewarm about it. First of all, I don't like dried figs. Fresh figs are lovely and they taste like watermelon, but dried figs and their tiny crunchy seeds, hmmm...not my thing. I was contemplating substituting some other dried fruit, like apricots or dried cherries; but then my strange and wonderful boyfriend, who is notoriously a picky eater, told me that he loves dried figs. What a weirdo, my guy, but in the end I decided to follow the recipe to the letter and leave the figs in. I could always eat around them, right?

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I've been trying to post this recipe forever, I posted this image on Flickr nearly a month ago, but life, love and baking seemed to come in between. This isn't a beautiful dish, but it's honest, easy to throw together and it's great comfort food. We have it on regular dinner rotation at ours, and it's especially favored when I don't really feel like cooking. I think that it works well whatever the season, in summer you can use freshly shelled peas and during the other three seasons frozen works just fine. This recipe is also just as tasty when made with veggie stock and without the ham, making it a perfect option for vegetarians, as well as meat eaters. Enjoy...

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