Persimmon Olive Oil Cake is the perfect way to use persimmons this season. Their beauty is showcased on top and their light sweet taste infuses this delicious cake.
Persimmons are one of my all time favorite fruits. They’re so tricky though because if you eat them when they are not perfectly ripe your tongue will get that sandy paper dry feeling. At least thats how it is for the hachiya variety. It’s the variety that really tests your patience. You will be rewarded with an amazingly delicious fruit thats oozing sweetness with just a small hint of crunch. If you eat it too soon though, it’s over for you. Your tongue will taste funny for up to an hour and you can’t salvage the persimmon. It’s just over. Patience tested.
The variety used for this cake is the Fuyu kind. It’s not as sweet as the other variety but it also doesn’t test your patience the same way. If you eat it before its fully ripe you’ll be fine, it just won’t taste as sweet as if you had waited. It’s much crunchier and you can bite into it like an apple. Very good stuff.
Even though the persimmon looks like the star of the party here, it’s actually the olive oil. Hiding in the cake is fair trade organic olive oil straight from fresh olives no additional added anything. Unfortunately these days it’s hard to know what is actually real olive oil. Even though it might say olive oil on the bottle it’s usually filled with vegetable, corn, and other types of oils and just a small percentage is actually olive oil. And when you buy olive oil that says “pomace” on it actually means it’s the left over scrap olives that are squeezed and mixed with other oils to make “olive oil”.
So when I got a call one day from Lana from Olive and Heart telling me about this wonderful company that she partnered up with called Canaan olive oil, I was beyond excited. She had the opportunity to go on an olive oil tour with the company and meet some of the farmers and their families and spoke nothing but great things about everyone. They only know authentic and organic farming and thats what they practice. It’s a true farm to table experience.
Lana was kind enough to share her olive oil cake recipe with me. This cake is light and delicious. It’s so different than the Nescafe cake I posted recently, both extremely delicious in their own way. She even included persimmons per special request because I’m obsessed with them and you’re going to be just as obsessed with this entire recipe!
Light and moist, this olive oil cake topped with beautiful persimmons is almost too pretty to eat. Perfect with a cup of coffee or tea!
- I cup Jenin olive oil
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 5 eggs
- 1 1/4 cup granulated sugar I used granulated cane sugar, but regular works fine
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon cardamom
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- pinch of sea salt
- 2 to 3 persimmons
- 2 TBsp. orange juice
- 1 TBsp. sour cream
- Unsalted butter for coating baking pan
- 1/2 to 1 pound of persimmons
- 1/3 cup sugar I used agave regular works fine
- 2 teaspoon of vanilla
- 2 TBsp. apple cider vinegar
- splash of water
- pinch of sea salt
- Preheat oven to 325°F.
- To start, peel and chop persimmons into cubes and purée in a food processor, with orange juice. The more ripe the persimmon, the better. (gooey and honey-like is great for this step!). Set aside.
- In a mixer bowl, using the whisk attachment, mix eggs and sugar together. Once those two are well combined, add the cup of olive oil and sea salt. Continue mixing. Then fold in persimmon purée and sour cream.
- Prepare dry mix in a separate bowl by adding together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cardamom and nutmeg. Fold all into the mixer containing eggs and olive oil, bringing all the ingredients together.
- Thinly coat the inside of a 9 inch round pan or spring form with butter. Pour in the batter, and place in preheated oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour. (I suggest a toothpick test after 45 minutes, as pan depths may vary.)
- Let cool before serving.
- Wash, peel and thinly slice 1 pound of persimmons. (Harder persimmons are best for this step.) Carefully mix peeled persimmon circles with sugar, apple cider vinegar, vanilla, salt and water. Spoon into a nonstick skillet or pan. Place in oven on broil setting for 20 minutes. Remove and allow to cool for a few minutes.
- Preferably using a cooking glove, individually place warm persimmon circles on top of the cake, starting from the outermost edge. Work your way into the center of the cake. Any remaining syrup from the pan can be poured over the completed cake for presentation.
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