Similar to a pineapple upside-down cake, but made using persimmons! To make the batter, you can either use a basic white cake batter recipe or soft persimmon pulp.
| Prep Time: | 25 mins |
| Cook Time: | 35 mins |
| Additional Time: | 10 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 10 mins |
| Servings: | 8 |
| Yield: | 1 9-inch cake |
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons margarine
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 4 large ripe persimmons, peeled and sliced
- ½ cup butter, softened
- 1 cup white sugar
- 2 cups persimmon pulp
- 2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- ½ cup chopped pecans
- ½ teaspoon lemon zest
Instructions
- Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9-inch round cake pan.
- Place the margarine and brown sugar in the cake pan and transfer the pan to the hot oven until the sugar is melted and bubbly, about 5 minutes. Remove from the oven; arrange the persimmon slices over the topping in the cake pan.
- Beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer in a large bowl until light and fluffy. The mixture should be noticeably lighter in color. Stir in the persimmon pulp. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Gradually add the flour mixture to the batter, stirring just to mix. The batter will be stiff, since the only liquid comes from the persimmon pulp. Stir in the pecans and lemon zest.
- Spoon the cake batter evenly over the persimmon slices and return the cake pan to the preheated oven. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes before inverting the cake right-side-up on a serving platter.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 514 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 81 g |
| Cholesterol | 31 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 3 g |
| Protein | 5 g |
| Saturated Fat | 9 g |
| Sodium | 484 mg |
| Sugars | 32 g |
| Fat | 21 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Really beautiful cake, I made it for a halloween potluck. I changed the recipe up a bit because I had really firm but sweet persimmons so it needed a bit of liquid. I used 1 cup of oat milk, about 1/4 cup coconut oil and 1/2 cup sugar. I made it completely vegan. It needed about another 5 mins in my oven. Thank you!
I loved this recipe!! Hello from 2022! I mashed so much American persimmon into pulp during the fall my freezer is screaming at me. Alas I came across this recipe! Now I did substitute some and tweak as I went along depending on what I had handily available. For the toppings I had papaya and used white sugar and some wildflower honey with the butter for that melody. For the cake I didn’t have baking powder or lemon juice no pecans nor ground cloves. I substituted lime juice vanilla extract and a package of mayonnaise. It came out like a moist cakey bread. Thick and dense. It carries alot of fall flavors in a way no other staples do. Gingerbread without the crunch. I look forward to trying this recipe again when I have all the ingredients. An I’m currently curious the age of this recipe. A cake make without milk or eggs. Convenient when lacking ingredients an still wanting your cake and eaingt it too!! It smelled so buttery sweet cooking! 5 stars. Would try again.
I skipped the pecans (accidentally) and replaced lemon zest with orange zest (intentionally). I also doubled the bake time which resulted in some really awesome caramel flavors coming through the entire cake. Absolutely delicious, can’t wait to bake again.
Super moist and flavorful. I used Hachiya persimmons so the pulp was very high in water content. Cake tastes more like a persimmon pudding and is delicious. I will make it again.
This seemed too dense and undercooked to me. I baked it for over an hour before pick came out clean. Perhaps it because I used hachiya persimmons for the batter, and fuyus for the bottom. Also it seemed too much batter for a 9” cake pan resulting in the batter spilling over and diminishing the aesthetics of the finished product.
Amazing cake! I’ve made it twice: once for me, and once for the neighbors who gave me Fuyu persimmons from their tree. Note: 4 persimmons is not a good measure — it depends on the size. More accurately, use 2 lbs before peeling. Cut 6-8 thin whole slices, enough to cover the top of the cake. Chop and blend the remaining persimmons until coarse pulp. I substituted the individual spices for 1.5 tsp Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Pie Spice mix, which includes cinnamon, ginger, lemon peel, nutmeg, cloves, and cardamom. I also increased the fresh lemon zest to 1 full tsp. Definitely bumped up the flavor. Be sure the center of the cake is completely cooked before removing or it will droop in the center. For me, that was about 40 minutes. (I made that mistake the fist time, but it was still delicious!)
My first time baking with persimmons. Really good. Very easy to make. I saw comments about added bake time, wasn’t necessary. This now a favorite.
Absolute fave. Eggs not neccessary. Cake turned out moist and yummy did need a bit longer than recipe stated. Was in for almost 1hr and 15 mins total.
I noticed there were NO eggs in this recipe, so I added one. What a disappointment . The edges were baked and the middle was complete mush…even after I put it back in the oven for 40 minutes!