Every time I travel, I get a few cooking magazines to read on the plane. One of my most recent trips, I picked up a Fine Cooking magazine, cooking fresh. I came across this quince upside down spice cake and I was intrigued. First, I had never seen or had a quince and I thought the warm flavors would lend well to my fall dessert roster. Well, as you can see I still haven’t seen a quince, these are persimmons!
The other day I was walking through the produce section and came across these beautiful persimmons. I had also never used or seen a persimmon before and this quince recipe popped into my head and I mixed my fall fruits! No worries, persimmons worked just as well in this recipe with a few other tweaks I made to the Fine Cooking one.
This recipe does take prep because you poach the persimmons the day before because they have to cool and sit in the fridge overnight in their poaching liquid. In this case it was a full bottle of dry white wine and I threw a cinnamon stick in there for good measure. I didn’t have the orange peel the original recipe called for, so I obviously didn’t put it in. But, I think it would add a nice flavor note.
When you are ready to make the rest of the cake. Take your poached persimmons halves and remove the core using a small sharp knife. Then thinly slice the persimmons to make half-moon slices. Set aside.
For the batter, which is straight forward and simple. Line either a 9 or 10-inch round cake pan with parchment paper and spray with non-stick spray. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Next combine your dry ingredients into a medium sized bowl and whisk. The flour has an addition of Almond flour along with AP flour. This gives the cake a slightly different texture than using just AP flour, but it lends nicely to the uniqueness of the cake. Set aside, beat the butter, sugar, honey and molasses until lighter and fluffy, around 5 minutes. Scrape down sides of bowl. Add eggs one at a time. Mix to combine. Then slowly add in your dry ingredients in 3 batches. Do not over mix.
Now take your persimmon slices and arrange, starting from the center in a circle and fanning out. I used less persimmons than I am putting in the recipe, so mine isn’t as centric and full of persimmon slices that I would have liked. You will have more slices, slightly overlap as you arrange around the cake, it will be more beautiful! Next you will spoon the batter over the persimmons until all gone. Take an offset spatula or knife and smooth over and spread evenly to the edges. Then, in the oven it goes for about 35 to 40 minutes until toothpick inserted comes out clean and voila!
Brush the tops of the persimmons with reserved poaching liquid.
Also, check out this beautiful antique fork my friend gave to me for my birthday. So pretty, love that my initial is there!
Serve at room temperature. You could also serve with a cardamom whipped cream! That would pair perfectly with this cake. Check out the recipe below and I hope you enjoy this unique fall take on dessert!
- For the Poached Persimmons:
- 5 to 6 fresh persimmons
- 1 750-ML bottle dry white wine
- 3 cups granulated sugar
- 1 cinnamon stick
- For the Cake:
- Non-stick cooking spray
- 1¾ cup un-bleached all purpose flour
- 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp. ground cardamom
- ¾ tsp. baking powder
- ½ tsp. baking soda
- ½ tsp. salt
- ½ tsp. ground nutmeg
- ⅛ tsp. ground cloves
- ½ cup almond flour
- 10 tbsp. unsalted butter room temp
- ⅔ packed brown sugar
- 2 tbsp. molasses
- ½ cup honey
- 3 large eggs room temp
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- Poach the Persimmons:
- Peel the persimmons, trim the ends, and cut them in half from stem to base, leaving the cores.
- Place the persimmon halves in a 4 quart pot and pour the entire bottle of wine over.
- Add the cinnamon stick and bring to a boil over medium heat.
- Reduce heat to simmer and poach until tender, around 50 to 60 minutes.
- Let the persimmons cool in the liquid. Then transfer persimmons with the poaching liquid in the fridge overnight.
- For the Cake:
- Position a rack in the center of the oven and pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Spray a 9 inch round cake pan with cooking spray and line the bottom with parchment paper, lightly coat the paper the spray.
- Using a small sharp knife, remove the cores from the persimmons and slice the halves into about ⅛ inch halfmoons.
- Arrange slices in slightly overlapping concentric circles in the prepared cake pan until the bottom of the pan is covered.
- Sift together the dry ingredients excluding the almond flour into a medium bowl. Next whisk in the almond flour into the rest of the dry ingredients.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter, honey, molasses and sugar until creamy and smooth, around 5 minutes. Scrape down bowl as needed.
- Next add the eggs one at a time until fully incorporated. Scrape down bowl after each addition.
- Slowly mix in dry ingredients with mixer running on slow.
- Turn mixer up to medium and beat until smooth and thick.
- Spoon batter over the persimmons in the pan until gone. Use an off-set spatula or knife and spread batter evenly to the side of pan and smooth surface.
- Bake the cake for 20 minutes, then rotate half-way and continuing baking for an additional 15 to 20 minutes until cake tester or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Allow cake to cool in pan for 15 to 20 minutes. Run a sharp knife around the sides of the pan while still warm and invert the cake on the wire rack to cool completely.
- Before serving the cake, brush tops of persimmons with the reserved poaching liquid.
- Serve with dollops of cardamom whip cream if using.
- Store leftovers wrapped and covered at room temperature for up to 3 days.
- Enjoy!
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