Persimmon Spice Tea Cake

I've been a wee-bit obsessed with bundts lately. (okay, okay, let's get your snickers and 'I like big bundt' jokes out of the way right now, please.) Bundts and quick tea cakes, to be exact. It's because they're so fast and easy and delicious, as simple as mixing the dry ingredients into the wet ones and throwing it all into the oven. And yet, there's something special and "ooooo"-inspiring about a bundt cake. It's as if baking the batter in a bundt pan magically transforms an ordinary cake into an extraordinary! cake.

For this reason, bundt (and loaf) cakes have become some of my favorite things to make during this time of year, when there is so much baking to be done for special celebrations amidst all of the scramble for end-of-the-year deadlines. Like this week. There are waaaaay too many deadlines and things to do--my "to do" list isn't really as much a list as it is a tome.

And so, enter the bundt cake to save my butt (excuse me, I couldn't resist :-P) when it came to baking for the holiday parties of the past few days. I've had these persimmons sitting on my counter, which were ripening themselves into a pulp for a while now, and I thought that a persimmon spice cake, versus the more typical pumpkin spice cake fare, would be a good excuse to use them up. So into the food processor they went, then a quick stir into a cake batter, and a little while later, out of the oven emerged this wonderfully spicy and super, super moist tea cake. I think because the persimmons are a bit more juicy than pumpkin usually is, these cakes came out even more luscious than normal.

[click on photo for a larger image]

For the second holiday party, I made an almond, meyer lemon, and poppyseed bundt, but I'll save that recipe for some other time. :) Now, if you excuse me--I hope you don't mind this ultra-short post, but my to-do list beckons! Til soon!

Read on for recipe....

Persimmon spice tea cake
loosely adapted from Tartine
makes one 9x5-inch loaf or one six-cup bundt

2 cups (280 gr) AP flour
3/4 tspn salt
1 1/2 tspn baking powder
1/2 tspn baking soda
1 tspn ground cinnamon
2 tspn freshly ground nutmeg
1/4 tspn ground cloves
255 gr persimmon puree (see note)
1 cup vegetable oil
1 1/3 cups (270 gr) sugar
3 eggs
powdered sugar

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and flour cake pans and set aside.
2. In a bowl, whisk to combine the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Set aside.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the persimmon puree, vegetable oil, and sugar until well-combined. Add in the eggs one at a time, whisking well after each addition. Gradually add in the dry ingredients, stirring just until combined. Do not overmix.
4. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 50 - 60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out cleanly.
5. Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes before removing from the pan, and let the cake cool completely on a wire rack. Dust with powdered sugar before serving.

Note: to make persimmon puree, remove the skin and seeds from 3 - 4 very ripe and soft persimmons, of either the hachiya or fuyu varieties, and puree in a food processor.

Enjoy!