Persimmon Pecan Cake

This post is sponsored in conjunction with the #FamilyBakingChallenge. I received product to aid in the creation of the recipe. All opinions are mine alone.

It was this time last year that our obsession with tea started. Jake wanted to do the annual Santa train – and Julie adamantly did not. Instead, she requested a holiday outing that did not involve Santa, so I made us reservations at a local tea room. Julie and I were both smitten with the experience and have been recreating it at home since.

It also kickstarted my experimentation with tea. I thought I didn’t like it – but I was pleasantly surprised to realize I was wrong. A cup of tea and an afternoon treat has become one of my favorite rituals this year.

This persimmon pecan cake was the perfect accompaniment to one of our afternoon teas. It’s not too sweet and the chewy pecans are a great foil to the soft cake.

Jump to:

Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 egg, well beaten
  • 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup all purpose flour
  • 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup persimmon pulp (about 2 ripe)
  • 3/4 cup pecan halves

Our inspiration for this cake was a recipe for Persimmon bread. We didn’t change up the ingredients much – our modifications were mostly in presentation. The original recipe yielded two loaves – something we definitely didn’t need for 4 people – so I chose to halve in. Instead of baking it as a loaf, I opted to make it a cake.

The loaf was dotted with raisins and pecans. We purposely placed the pecans here instead of chopping them to mix in to make it look fancy and my sous chefs vetoed the raisins completely.

Directions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9″ round pan with baking spray. Lay out the pecan halves in a single layer in the pan.
  • With a mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until creamy. Beat in the egg and vanilla until well combined.
  • In another bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. Stir into the wet ingredients until combined.
  • Stir in the persimmon pulp.
  • Gently spoon the batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly, disturbing the pecan halves as little as possible.
  • Bake until a knife inserted comes out clean, about 20-25 minutes.
  • Let cool for about 10 minutes, then invert onto a plate to serve.

The original recipe also calls for a cream cheese frosting that we chose to omit as we prefer our tea treats to be less sweet. If you did want to sweeten this cake up a little more, a dusting of powdered sugar would be just perfect.

More favorites for tea

We’ve been having a lot of fun making different treats to go with our tea. Scones are some of our favorite bakes and these Cranberry Scones are perfect for the season! We also love Dark Chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti and Cranberry Pecan Pinwheels.

Recipe

Persimmon Pecan Cake

Persimmon Pecan Cake

Yield: 8 Servings
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 egg, well beaten
  • 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup all purpose flour
  • 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup persimmon pulp (about 2 ripe)
  • 3/4 cup pecan halves

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9" round pan with baking spray. Lay out the pecan halves in a single layer in the pan.
  2. With a mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until creamy. Beat in the egg and vanilla until well combined.
  3. In another bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. Stir into the wet ingredients until combined.
  4. Stir in the persimmon pulp.
  5. Gently spoon the batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly, disturbing the pecan halves as little as possible.
  6. Bake until a knife inserted comes out clean, about 20-25 minutes.
  7. Let cool for about 10 minutes, then invert onto a plate to serve.

Notes

Adapted from Persimmon Bread

We used Fuyu Persimmons

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