Martha Stewart Knows Her Figs

This afternoon I discovered a new coffee shop near the local university.

It had a very indie/rock feel to it that had me feeling like a college student when I pulled out my laptop. It was fun to pretend I was back in school for a couple of hours. The iced coffee wasn’t bad either. 🙂

I stayed for a few hours, then headed home when my battery life moved into the red.

A Quaker Smashbar (HLS swag!) acted as my snack on the way home

I’ve seen mix reviews on these, but I’m a fan. They taste like rice krispie treats and remind me of my childhood. I wouldn’t call them a ‘health’ snack, but I would call them a tasty one. 🙂

Dinner featured another HLS swag item – a box of the new Near East Quinoa Blend.

I followed the directions on the back of the box, then added roasted eggplant and chickpeas before serving it over a bed of spinach with goat cheese.

I like that Near East has dove into the quinoa market, it adds a little something to their typical products. The flavor was a little bland on it’s own, but once I added some salt and goat cheese – it came together nicely.

Dessert was the fun part of the evening. 🙂

This photo makes me laugh for too many reasons. 😉

I was trying to highlight that the dessert I was making was so delicious, that the bowl had to be licked clean.

Yum. 🙂

What was I making? Just a little recipe I found online from Martha Stewart for Lemon-Fig Cake.

The poor cake wasn’t very photogenic. I blame my ‘glazing’ skills.

The original idea came from Lisa in the comments of my afternoon post. She suggested adding fresh figs to a lemon cake mix (which is genius), but after a quick google I found this easy recipe from Martha Stewart and knew I had to try it.

I did make a few changes.

Like letting the figs soak in the sugar before I added them to the mix.

And using a cake pan because I’m not even 100% sure what a tart pan looks like.

I also created a glaze of powdered sugar, lemon juice, and milk for the top.

Next time I’ll work harder at evenly blending the clumps of powdered sugar. 😉

I had a piece for dessert and nibbled my way through half of another one. Martha Stewart knows her stuff – this cake was great!

Unfortunately Derek revealed this evening that: A) he doesn’t like lemon cake and B) he doesn’t like figs. This made me very sad inside. Sniff. Sniff.

I still have a container and a half of figs left… thanks to all of your ideas – I now have an idea of what I’ll make next. 😉

Tagged as: Coffee Shop, Healthy Living Summit, Lemon Fig Cake, Mojo Coffee & Tea, Near East, Quaker