Spiced Persimmon Cake
Servings: 12 servings
Calories: 379kcal
Make this insanely delicious spiced persimmon cake that my family couldn't stop raving about. The cake is perfectly spiced, moist, and simply out of this world!
Print Recipe
Ingredients
- 115 g walnut halves
- 520 g ripe Fuyu persimmon about 4 medium size Fuyu or 2 large very ripe Hachiya persimmons
- 1 tsp baking soda
Dry ingredients:
- 228 g all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp Chinese five-spice powder
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- ½ tsp baking powder
Wet ingredients:
- 180 g granulated sugar
- 113 g oil plus more to coat the pan
- 100 g eggs from 2 large-size eggs
- 1 tsp grated orange zest
- 57 g orange juice
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
For topping:
- 1 medium ripe Fuyu persimmon
To coat the pan:
- Demerara sugar or turbinado sugar
Instructions
Prepare the pan:
- Preheat the oven to 350 F (180 C) for conventional oven, 330 F (165 C) for convection oven
- Oil all sides of 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 loaf pan. Line with a parchment paper on overhanging on the long side. Then oil the parchment paper again.
- Sprinkle with some demerara/turbinado sugar to cover all four sides of the pan. The oil helps the sugar adhere to the pan
Toast the walnuts:
- If the walnuts are untoasted, place them on a large baking sheet and bake in a preheated oven for 10 minutes. Let them cool down completely before using
- Once they have cooled down, coarsely chop them
Prepare the persimmon:
- Remove the leaves and stems from the persimmon. There is no need to remove the skin. Place in a food processor or blender. Process into a puree consistency
- Combine the persimmon puree with baking soda
- let it sit for 5 minutes while you prepare other things.
- The puree will turn into gel consistency after that. The baking soda helps to neutralize the astringency in persimmon, especially if you use Hachiya persimmons. So please do not skip this step
- Get one Fuyu persimmon and slice into thin slices for decoration on top, about 8 slices
Prepare the cake batter:
- Combine all the dry ingredients in a large bowl and set aside. To the bowl of the persimmon "gel", add the rest of the wet ingredients and whisk until combined. The persimmon gel will break into bits and pieces in the cake.
- So the batter will have specks of persimmon in there and that's perfectly fine.
- Make a well in the center of the flour mixture. Pour in the persimmon mixture. Use a spatula to fold the dry into the wet ingredients as you rotate the bowl.
- Mix until almost combined, then add the walnut pieces
- Continue to fold and mix until you no longer see dry flour bits. Don't overmix the batter
Baking:
- Scrape the batter into the prepared pan.
- Arrange slices of Fuyu persimmon on top of the batter. Sprinkle with more demerara/turbinado sugar
- Bake in the oven for 60-75 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean with just a few sticky crumbs is okay, as long as no wet batter. It took my oven about 75 minutes. Start checking at 60-minute mark
Cooling:
- Let the cake cool in the pan set on a cooling rack for at least 30 minutes.
- Then use an offset spatula to loosen the edge between the cake and the shorter side of the pan and gently lift the cake up by grabbing the parchment paper. Let it cool down completely on the cooling rack
Serving:
- I highly recommend to slice into the cake the next day. This way the cake has enough time to develop flavor. The cake is very moist yet light at the same time. It's such a delicious cake!
Notes
This recipe is adapted from Dessert Person by Claire Saffitz. I love that baking book! It's one of my absolute favorite baking books!
Nutrition
Serving: 1serving | Calories: 379kcal | Carbohydrates: 55g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 17g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 7g | Monounsaturated Fat: 7g | Trans Fat: 0.04g | Cholesterol: 31mg | Sodium: 320mg | Potassium: 312mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 16g | Vitamin A: 60IU | Vitamin C: 49mg | Calcium: 51mg | Iron: 3mg
