A delicately sweet, moist cake which makes perfect fuel for a long walk or bike ride but could equally be served with a good vanilla ice cream for dessert.

At around 120 calories per portion, it’s a worthy snack and tasty treat all in one. It’s swapping the butter for yoghurt that makes the biggest calorie difference compared to a normal cake recipe – a trick you could try anywhere. Makes a much denser, more moist cake but still very much a cake.

I made this one with goat’s yoghurt as it felt like a good pairing with the figs for my not overly-sweet tooth. Use whatever plain yoghurt you have to hand.

Serves 10

Ingredients

Spelt Flakes	100	grams
Goat’s Yoghurt or other Plain Yoghurt	250	grams
Eggs	3
Spelt Flour or your Preferred Flour	80	grams
Figs – about 5	140	grams
Pomegranate Juice	150	millilitres
Honey	25	grams
Baking Powder	1	teaspoon

Equipment

1. 15x30cm brownie style tin (you want a wide, shallow cake given it will be quite dense)

Method

1. Mix the spelt flakes, yoghurt and pomegranate juice and leave to soak until the spelt flakes are soft. Should be 20-30 minutes ish.
2. Stir in the flour.
3. Cut the figs into rough chunks, saving 1 or 2 to slice for decoration if you wish.
4. Stir the chunks of fig into the spelt & yoghurt mixture.
5. Mix in the eggs.
6. Add a couple of teaspoons of honey to taste.
7. Stir in a teaspoon of baking powder.
8. Grease and line your tin.
9. Spread the mixture in an even layer.
10. Decorate with the reserved fig slices and a few extra drizzles of honey.
11. Bake in a medium-hot oven (180 ish) for around 30 minutes. Test it with the usual knife-comes-out-clean check – bearing in mind a moist cake will always leave a little residue on the knife.
12. Allow to cool before removing from the tin.
13. If you fancy taking it on a long walk or bike ride, divide into portions and either wrap with cling film or my favourite on-the-go wrap – half greaseproof/half foil (Bacofoil sell it via Ocado and Lakeland do a version). Easier to unwrap on the move.