One of my favorite Autumn fruits is the American Persimmon, Diospyros virginiana. This native persimmon grows across much of the Southeast and lower Midwest, and produces small orange globes of fruit on stately trees.
We have planted a few trees on our property and have access to a few mature trees, each with hundreds of ripening fruit for gleaning. We pick the ripest persimmons, mostly freshly fallen from the ground, process them into a pulp for freezing, and reserve a few cups of pulp to experiment with recipes, such as this persimmon cake recipe.
The most well-known persimmon recipe is the classic Persimmon Pudding, a baked or steamed pudding with the consistency of a dense custard. We have made the classic steamed version of Persimmon Pudding a few times (I’ll put this recipe on my list of ones to try), and while the steamed puddings are delicious, they tend to be very dense, and heavy on spices such as clove, nutmeg, and cinnamon; We were looking for something a bit more light that highlighted the flavor of the persimmon. This moist-textured persimmon cake recipe was a winner!
Note: If you want to try this with store-bought persimmons, buy the Hachiya variety that is ripe only when the flesh is soft and gooey. The Fuyu variety is eaten when crisp like an apple, and isn’t the best choice for this recipe.
Persimmon Cake Recipe
Ingredients
1 Stick (8 Tbsp) Butter at room temperature
1 1/3 Cup Sugar
2 Cups Persimmon Puree (Check out this blog post for instructions on how to make persimmon puree)
1/2 Cup Milk
3 Eggs
2 Cups Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Cinnamon
a Pinch to 1/8 tsp Nutmeg, to your desired taste
To Make the Persimmon Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, grease and flour a 9 x 13 inch baking dish
- Cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy
- Add in eggs, milk, and persimmon puree, and gently combine until smooth and creamy
- In a separate bowl, combine dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg)
- Gradually blend the dry mixture into the persimmon mixture
- Spoon into the prepared cake pan and bake for 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean
- Allow to cool slightly, and serve warm or cold. For an extra treat, try it with a side of vanilla ice cream, or a dollop of whipped cream!
Deliciously moist with a light spice, this persimmon cake makes a wonderful breakfast or dessert treat. Preheat the oven to 350 F, grease and flour a 9 x 13 inch baking dish Cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy Add in eggs, milk, and persimmon puree, and gently combine until smooth and creamy In a separate bowl, combine dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg) Gradually blend the dry mixture into the persimmon mixture Spoon into the prepared cake pan and bake for 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean Allow to cool slightly, and serve warm or cold. For an extra treat, try it with a side of vanilla ice cream, or a dollop of whipped cream! The consistency of wild harvested persimmons can vary widely. The batter of this cake should be similar to a zucchini bread or banana bread.Persimmon Cake Recipe
Ingredients
Instructions
Notes
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Tweaked the recipe by doing half almond flour & half AP flour. The cake took longer to bake since the moisture content from the persimmon kept the cake from setting. Baked it for 1 hour and left the cake inside the oven to cool down completely for attest 4 hours. It is more of a moist cake with almost caramelized edges.
Next time will make sure to reduce the sugar since persimmon was very sweet itself.
Very delicious cake, would love to make again.
Thanks for sharing that tweak. And yes, you’ve perfectly described the caramelized edges! They are the best part!
I normally make recipes as written, but was looking to make
no sugar/low carb persimmon cake for my diabetic mom. I subbed Swerve for the sugar and almond flour for the AP flour. It didn’t rise and stuck to the pan in one spot, but was very tasty. I think she’ll be happy.
I’m glad those adjustments worked for you! Hope your mom enjoyed!
Made this exactly as written adding a inch of clove. Don’t know what happened but it was more like a pudding than a cake. Very very wet. Good flavor horrible texture.
This cake was awesome! Such a wonderful way to use super ripe persimmons. My family really enjoyed this cake. Will be making it again.
Thanks!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for letting me know!
I had a bunch of very ripe Fuyu persimmons and wanted an easy recipe to use them in. I found this recipe tonight and tried it. Delicious! Thanks so much for the recipe. I tweaked the recipe by using 1.5 cups of unbleached white flour and 0.5 cups of wheat flour. I also used oat milk instead of cow milk. Really like the moistness of this recipe. I thought there might be too much liquid with the persimmon pulp and the milk, but it turned out great! Thanks!
Thanks for sharing your tweaks with me! I’m glad you enjoyed the recipe – you’re right, it’s very moist, but that’s what makes it so good!!
Hi there, thanks for this beautiful site! We are somewhere right now where friends gave us Fuyu persimmons, which are delicious to munch on raw but as you write much crispier. Would they still work for a recipe like this? Thanks!
I’m sure it would taste delicious with Fuyu persimmons, but it would be a very different recipe. The recipe here uses the persimmons to add moisture, so you would likely need to add some more moisture – maybe some applesauce would work well, and then cut up the Fuyu persimmons, kind of like an apple cake??
Thanks Teri! I figured the moisture would be an issue. I might wing it by adding some other moisture – maybe coconut milk or cream – even though its not southern it would help!
Yes, definitely experiment, and I’d love to hear how it goes for you!