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Tuesday, June 28, 2011

persimmon butterscotch cake


Persimmoooons! Yum, yum, YUM! Some people don't think there's much flavour to them but they're wrong. Wrong! In New Zealand, we pretty much only grow the non-astringent Fuyu, so I'd never even heard of the astringent Hachiya type until a couple of years ago. I know for a fact I haven't been missing out. I can't imagine eating the gloopy, stringy soup that is a super ripe persimmon. Blurgh.

Now, what!? Cream cheese icing?! Oh my, too good.

But of course, super soft persimmons are a bit easier to use in cakes than hard ones... And thankfully, once a persimmon goes even a teensy bit soft, it's over for me; there's no way I'm eating it raw. That persimmon and its buddies are sent straight to a bowl of apples and bananas to ripen even more!

note white chocolate chunks at 9 and 10oclock

Persimmon baked goods are normally spiced up (like a carrot or apple cake) but I wasn't too keen on that. I grabbed David Lebovitz's recipe and, thinking about the flavour of a persimmon, decided to go down the caramel route. And oh what a delicious destination! It's more of a caramel flavour than a persimmon one but it's a good one nonetheless :)

Persimmon Butterscotch Cake
Adapted from David Lebovitz

Cake
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 2/3 cup granulated white sugar
6 oz/170g butter, melted and cooled
1 1/2 cups persimmon puree
3 large eggs, room temp
1 tablespoon butterscotch liqueur
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon instant coffee granules
1 cup chopped white chocolate (big enough not to melt completely when baked and small enough not to all sink to the bottom...)

Grease a 9 inch bundt cake pan, line bottom with baking paper and grease the paper. Preheat oven to 175C/350F.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt and sugar. 

In a medium bowl, combine melted butter, persimmon puree, eggs, butterscotch liqueur, vanilla, and instant coffee. Gently fold into flour. Don't overmix!

Scrape batter into prepared pan and bake until a skewer comes out clean, about an hour. The sides of the cake may go a little weird halfway through but that's ok! Cool in pan for a couple of hours and then invert onto cooling rack.

Icing
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
6oz/180g cream cheese, softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons persimmon puree
2/3 cup icing sugar, sifted

Cream together butter and cream cheese. Mix in vanilla extract and persimmon. Sift in icing sugar and combine. Spread over top of cake.

1 comment:

  1. Your cake looks lovely! On persimmons - I have often wished that NZ sold the super soft ones - disgustingly juicy, but to me they are heaven :) I do not really enjoy the crunchy ones. Funny how people perceive tastes and textures so differently. I had come across this recipe some time ago and it sparked intrigue and hesitation at once.

    Nice to find your blog today - will be back!

    ReplyDelete

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