Persimmon Loaf Cake for our Virtual Tea Party

We have a Fruit & Veg Fairy Godfather. When the pandemic first hit, my parents received large quantities of slightly bruised fruit & veg from a Neighbour Friend – his brother imports these and had excess. We were happy recipients and made apple crumble, lemon drizzle cake, along with many stir fries with our bounty.

Even now, we still receive these gifts. A few weeks ago, there were copious amounts of persimmon. My Kitchen Goddess Mother painstakingly prepared the fruit (removed the hard tops and skins) then tasked me to find a use for them beyond sorbet.

I poked around online and found to my delight, Natasha’s Kitchen (whose food & recipe site I love) had a recipe for Persimmon Bread/Cake.

I have made many loaves since and Everyone I’ve gifted them to has loved it: the persimmon taste is still apparent, and the walnuts & raisins add such delight to a moist bread/cake. So, if you find yourself with quantities of persimmon, I highly recommend this recipe.

• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 150g brown sugar (original recipe calls for 200g granulated sugar)
• 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
• 700g persimmon pureed 
• 140g unsalted butter, melted
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp of salt
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 360g all-purpose flour
• 160g walnut pieces (original recipe calls for them to be toasted; I don’t)
• 150g raisins

1. Remove tops of persimmon. Cut into quarters and puree in a blender (my Mom scooped the flesh out of the skins because they were quite tough)
2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, sugar and vanilla.
3. Mix in persimmon puree and melted butter.
4. Stir in baking soda, salt, cinnamon and flour until well combined.
5. Fold in walnuts and raisins until evenly dispersed.
6. Divide the batter between prepared loaf pans. Bake for 45 – 50 min or until a wooden toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
7. Cool in pans 10 min then turn out onto wire rack to cool to room temperature.

Some of our friends like to eat these more-ish slices hot. We prefer it chilled, better still with vanilla ice cream or Greek yogurt.