Persimmon cake with cream cheese icing

Ingredients (Serves 10 to 12)

Cake

• 3 to 4 very ripe original or sweet persimmons – to yield 1 ½ cups of puree
• Melted butter
• 2 ½ cups plain flour, sifted
• 1 ¼ cup caster sugar
• 1 cup full-cream milk
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla bean paste or natural
  
• vanilla extract
• ½ tsp baking powder, sifted
• 2 tsp bi-carb of soda, sifted
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• ¼ tsp nutmeg
• Generous pinch of ground cloves
• ½ tsp salt

Icing

• 125 g cream cheese, softened
• ½ cup icing sugar, sifted
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 50 g unsalted butter, softened
• 1 tsp vanilla bean paste, or natural vanilla extract (optional)
• 1/3 cup chopped toasted pecan nuts*

Special Equipment

26 cm fluted ring tin

Method

Preheat oven to 160°C or 150°C fan forced.

For persimmon puree, remove calyx and scoop pulp out with a spoon. Discard skin and seeds, then blitz pulp with a stick blender or blender to make 1 ½ cups of puree. Set aside at room temperature.

For the cake: with a pastry brush, thoroughly grease ring tin with melted butter. Spoon a couple of tablespoons full of plain flour into tin, turning and shaking it until the inside is completely coated. Bang tin firmly on bench top to loosen excess flour, then discard. With a whisk, roughly mix all the wet ingredients and sugar in a medium to large bowl. Fold dry ingredients into the wet mixture in three to four batches until you have a relatively smooth batter. Pour into the ring tin and bake for 50 minutes to one hour, or until skewer comes out clean. Allow cake to sit for a few seconds before turning out onto a cooling rack.

To prepare icing, combine all ingredients except nuts and beat with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy.

When cake has cooled completely, slather roughly with cream cheese icing and sprinkle nuts over the top.

* To toast pecan nuts, simply chop roughly and then dry toast in a frypan on a medium heat until nice and golden. You may also roast in a pre-heated oven at 160°C for 5 to 10 mins. Cool before using.