Persimmon cake
Autumn means persimmons. My friend Maz has a persimmon tree in her backyard – one year she gave me 5kgs of persimmons. Holy crap. What can you do with so many persimmons? I’m the only person in the house who’ll eat them, and even then I prefer the non-astringent Fuyu type.
This year she asked if I wanted any. I firmly told her that I only wanted a few. She countered with an offer of twenty – I’m guessing her tree is rather prolific.
I grudgingly agree to twenty.
She showed up with a box. There were *definitely* more than twenty. I should’ve counted them out and made her take the extra home. 😉
So far I’ve eaten a few and the other weekend I trialled baking with them by putting them into a cake. The cake turned out okay – it’s an adaptation of a whole orange and almond meal cake with additional spices. The result is a cake with a wet, pudding like texture. It’s sweet and contains the honey notes of the persimmon and is spiced with cinnamon and vanilla.
Like I said – it was okay. It’s not amazing. It could use a bit more work, but hey – if you have a glut of persimmons and need an idea – you could give this one a try.
Oh and a warning – if your persimmons are the astringent type, they must must must be entirely soft before you use them. I’ve taken a bite of an unripe one before (hey, I was interested to see if it would be as awful as people say) and trust me – you do not want to eat that shit. I had to rinse my mouth about five times before the powdery sensation started to fade. Erk.
Persimmon cake
Adapted from The Cooks Companion
About 10 medium sized fully ripe persimmons
6 eggs, lightly beaten
250g ground almonds
200g caster sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
Preheat the oven to 190°C. Grease a 20cm springform tin and line the base with baking paper.
Scoop out the flesh of the persimmons and add to a blender. Blend until smooth.
Pour into a large bowl and add the eggs, ground almonds, caster sugar, cinnamon, vanilla extract, salt and baking powder. Mix to combine.
Pour into the prepared tin and bake for about 45 mins – 1 hour. (It may need a bit longer – pierce it with a skewer to check how done it is. If it’s still very wet, bake for longer.)
leaf (the indolent cook)
May 24, 2012 @ 12:05 am
I like fresh persimmons, but I can see how they might be decent though not amazing in cake. Still would try though, if someone makes it for me. 😀
Agnes
May 26, 2012 @ 10:10 pm
I don’t know what else to do with fresh persimmons. I made jam one year but it was crap jam AND I don’t really eat jam.
Trish
May 24, 2012 @ 5:48 am
I only recently tried some with blue cheese. It was bangin’ but the cheese so strong, I didnt really get the flavour. Was the cake ‘strong’?
Agnes
May 26, 2012 @ 10:11 pm
Nah it wasn’t strong. You wouldn’t really be able to pick the persimmon flavour – it’s mostly just sweetness.
Mhmmm blue cheese…
Hannah
May 24, 2012 @ 3:35 pm
Crunchy fuyu persimmons are currently one of my favourite fruits, but the pulpy hachiya squelchy kind? oh, my stomach is cringing even at the thought.
In an almond cake I could cope, though. I think I’d throw some rosewater in this.
Agnes
May 26, 2012 @ 10:12 pm
Yeah the hachiya have such an icky gooey jelly like texture. I’m not a big fan either even though I forced myself to eat some.
Winston
May 25, 2012 @ 6:53 pm
HAHAHHAA… You are super honest and direct about not liking unripe persimmons LOL. I love it! And foahhh… I don’t know anyone that has persimmon trees but I’m running out of excuses for declining the bags and bags of lemons ppl keep giving me! I’m glad that’s sorta stopped because it really was stressing me out, as I’m sure you’d understand with the persimmons haha. Though, I do love this fruit. I’d still love to try this cake because your photos are stunning and make me want to have them with tea or coffee served in a tray in the daytime too HAHA
Agnes
May 26, 2012 @ 10:19 pm
Haha have you even eaten an unripe persimmon? (If not, don’t do it!)
Your lemon problem might start up again later this year when trees start producing again. Maybe you need to cut people off your friendship list to stop them giving you lemons. 😉