Arugula, Fig & Blue Cheese Salad

As I was saying last Friday, my sweet friend recently asked me to bake and decorate her wedding cake for her upcoming wedding next June.  I was completely honored and yes, extremely terrified since I'm an admittedly terrible baker and really wasn't sure how I would pull this off.  So we decided to make trial cakes to see how they looked!

Wine + cake = perfect girl's night.

When I asked her what her vision was for her dream wedding cake she asked me if I had ever seen a photo of Hilary Duff's cake?  Absolutely stunning.  She wanted a spice cake using figs and other fruits in place of flowers so my head started spinning with ideas.  You can find all my inspiration cakes here!

Thank YOU Pinterest!

In my search I found the absolute perfect recipe, a southern spiced fig cake with cream cheese frosting and lemme tell you, it tasted incredibly delicious!  I might actually re-make it for the blog so you guys can see for yourselves the reasons behind my obsession with this cake.  It's just that good!

Although the cake tasted delicious, decorating and assembling was a whole other issue!  As I said before, I am NOT a baker.  Nowhere close.  Pretty sure I just learned last week what "cutting in butter" meant.  Yes sad I know.  So that might be why I failed to follow the first rule in cake decorating....allow the cakes to cool COMPLETELY before icing.

Womp womp.

Yeah my tiers were sliding all over the place and icing was running straight down the cake.  Sigh.  It was one hot mess.  We were glad the cake at least still tasted good, however she'll most likely be purchasing one from a professional.  Needless to say, I had TONS of figs leftover so I was excited to use them over the weekend.  I had found this recipe awhile back and was in LOVE with her photography so I wanted to try and re-create it.  Thanks Scaling Back for such beautiful inspiration!! 
 

Ok so let me just jump right in and confess, I had no idea figs tasted this good!  They are sweet with a bit of an earthy flavor which tasted simply perfect over a cool crisp salad.  The dressing is a basic balsamic dressing with a touch of Dijon and paired really well with the blue cheese and figs.  Feel free to throw some chopped walnuts over top or add other fruits such as fresh raspberries.

Is your head swooning yet?
I sure hope so. 
 

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Servings: 4

Serving Size: 1 1/2 cups salad + 1 1/2 Tbsp dressing

Calories: 219

Fat: 10 g

Carbs: 25.5 g

Fiber: 3.7 g

Protein: 2.5 g

Old Points: 4.5 pts

Points+: 5 pts

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Here are your ingredients:

Recipe adapted from Scaling Back

1 pint fresh figs, quartered

2 bags arugula

1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese

3 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 tsp. Dijon mustard

3 Tbsp olive oil

Salt and pepper, to taste

To make the dressing, whisk together balsamic vinegar, Dijon mustard, olive oil and salt and pepper and allow to marinate in the fridge for about 30 minutes.  Meanwhile, arrange arugula on 4 plates, add figs, blue cheese and drizzle with pre-made dressing.  Serve and enjoy!

Click here for a printable version of this recipe 

Enjoy friends!!