Booo…Persimmon Spice Cake with Favorite Buttercream Icing for Halloween

Take a bite of “Persimmon Spice Cake” for a Halloween surprise. It is full of autumn spices; then comes the astringent “kick.” But the taste of the “pucker” Hachiya persimmons is very mild; the main cake flavors are wonderful autumn spices and a fruity orange hint with walnuts. My “Favorite Buttercream Icing” makes just the right topping for a sweet, rich compliment. I always like to post a recipe related to Halloween on my blog. Oops, this year Halloween just flew by…but we can still make this cake. It is also perfect for autumn festivities, Thanksgiving and Christmas — just change the decorations. No persimmons? Substitute pumpkin pulp. I made this cake for my husband’s birthday celebration — but he ate half the cake before I got it decorated. Now I have to wait for more persimmons to ripen to make another cake. And, I’m fighting with the squirrels to see which of us gets the best persimmons on my backyard tree.

Persimmon Tree

I love my backyard persimmon tree. Over the past 20 years years, the tree has outdone itself and is just loaded with persimmons every autumn. Here is the tree a few years ago.

This year, however, several crafty squirrels discovered what a easy supper it was just to take a bite of the persimmons — and then carry the remainder off. I watched as my persimmon supply dwindled. Finally, I stepped in and picked the best ones before they were completely gone.

My persimmon tree is an Hachiya variety. The persimmon looks like an acorn, but it is much larger; about the size of an apple. It is an astringent variety — which means that the bitter tannins in the pulp can make your mouth pucker. It is tempting to try to eat the persimmons when they are firm; however, they are incredibly astringent. Wonder what the squirrels were thinking!

I pick the persimmons while they are still firm and set the persimmons on my kitchen counter at room temperature to ripen. After a few weeks, the persimmons become translucent, soft and gelatinous. Ready to use in recipes. And, my husband loves to eat them whole; as a snack!

Traditional Persimmon Spice Cake Recipe

This recipe makes a traditional cake. It is a spice cake, full of rich autumn spices. These tone down the persimmon anstrigency. The batter includes orange juice — rather than milk — this gives sort of a “fruity” tone. And, the walnuts add spark to the cake, don’t omit them. Although the original recipe used an 9″ x 13″ sheet pan, I thought that a cake baked in round cake pans might be more appropriate for a birthday cake. The recipe is a small one, the batter barely filled the two round pans.

Ingredients:

Persimmons. This recipe uses 1 cup of persimmon pulp. This is equivalent to 2 very ripe Hachiya persimmons. (Do not try using Fuyu persimmons in this recipe.) If you are a little over or under in volume; that’s okay. The pulp should be ripe — meaning soft and gelatinous. If not, let the persimmons set on your kitchen counter until they ripen and try making the cake at a later date.

Spices. The spices are cinnamon, nutmeg and ground ginger (not fresh ginger). Great and aromatic spices. And, not too much spice — just enough to give an hint of autumn.

Orange juice gives a fruity touch and compliments the persimmon flavor.

Walnuts add a nutty flavor. I wouldn’t omit the nuts — and I prefer walnuts over pecans in this recipe. That’s a personal preference.

Swans Down Cake Flour. I used cake flour to make the cake. Swans Down Cake Flour is a soft wheat flour and it is lower in gluten which makes a tender cake. And, yes it makes a difference. (Since I don’t often use this flour, I store it in my extra freezer.) On the right is a photo of Snavely’s brand soft wheat pastry flour. I used the small bag which I got at our family reunion to make the cake. The flour is milled in Lititz, Pennsylvania. So, if you live in the area or visit Lititz — here’s some cake flour for you, if you can take home a 50 lb bag. Although we don’t know if these Snavely Mill folks are related, they share the same family name as ours. And, our family also settled in this area of Pennsylvania in the 1700s.

Leavening. The leavening comes from both the baking powder and baking soda. It is not a recipe mistake that both are included.

Other ingredients include real butter, granulated sugar and a pinch of salt. Butter gives great flavor and whips up to make a light and airy cake. You need a tiny amount of salt so the cake is not “flat.” Of course, every cake needs sugar. My recipe used granulated sugar. This recipe does not include vanilla extract.

Making the Recipe

This is a traditional cake recipe. That means getting out the electric mixer to cream the softened butter and sugar and beat in the eggs until the batter is soft, pale and airy. My 50-year-old old Sunbeam electric mixer finally gave up. I purchased a new Kitchen Aide mixer. However, it is too large to be practical for a small cake recipe such as this one. So, I purchased a small, inexpensive Black & Decker brand portable mixer. It is a basic mixer, but it works. Hurray!

To mix up this cake, cream together the softened butter and sugar. Then add the eggs and beat in on medium speed. The mixture should be light and airy and pale. Add the persimmon pulp and beat in. Chop up the walnuts, but don’t mix them in quite yet.

Sift together the flour, baking powder and soda, spices and salt. (This distributes the spices, leavening agents and salt. The cake flour should already be “sifted.”) Add the flour mixture alternatively with the orange juice. Fold in the walnuts by hand. Don’t over beat this cake batter because that can make the cake dense and rubbery.

I baked the cake in two 9″ – diameter well-oiled cake pans. Bake for 25 minutes at 350 degrees until the cake springs back and pulls away from the edges. This is a dense cake, it doesn’t have much “lift.”.

Let the cakes cool to room temperature before trying to remove from the cake pans. Then ice the cakes.

Favorite Buttercream Icing

For this cake, I made a wonderful buttercream icing. It is my favorite “go to” icing. The icing is rich and creamy. It is easy to spread on the cake and also easy to tint to different colors. The icing ingredients are so simple: 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, 2 cups powdered sugar, 1 tsp vanilla extract and 2 Tbsp plus 1 tsp milk. It works like a charm every time. And, you can increase the ingredients. For example, for a large cake — just double all the ingredients.

To make the icing, make sure that the butter is softened on the kitchen counter for several hours. This makes it a breeze to mix up the icing. First, beat the butter until it is creamy using an electric mixer. Then blend in the powdered sugar, vanilla extract and milk. If you have measured the powdered sugar to “level” cups, then these proportions should be correct. If the icing is too thick, then add more milk — one tsp at a time; if too thin — then add more powdered sugar — 2 Tbsp at a time.

To add the icing to the cake; I always put the first layer on the cake stand upside down. This makes a flat surface for icing, Spread on a thin layer and spread it out. Put the second layer on right side up and ice it — top and sides. This icing recipe is just enough to ice the cake — nothing is left for decorations.

The fun part of baking cakes is decorating them. Since I’m going with a Halloween theme, I picked up black “cake drip” icing and decorations as well as candy corn. Plus, I had some red hard candy left over from another project. I love the black beads which came in an assortment of sizes.

The black icing is called “Cake Drip.” It is white chocolate icing which is tinted to a black color. It is supposed to “drip” over the edges of the cake and harden. To use this icing, remove the entire top lid and heat in the microwave oven for 30 seconds. Then replace the lid, screwing it on tightly. Shake to mix the ingredients. Take off the top tip and cap; squeeze to pour and spread. Store remaining icing is a cool place at room temperature.

Here’s my Boo….Persimmon Spice Cake. And, I’m glad that my photos from this afternoon’s “photo session” turned out well because the cake is quickly disappearing! Perfect for any autumn or holiday celebration.

This spice cake is delicious.

I will be adding this cake to my long list of “favorite” cake recipes. This cake is easy to make and it is quite tasty. I love my “Favorite Buttercream Icing” recipe. It is the perfect finishing touch for this cake.

Enjoy! I hope you will try it too — either with persimmons or pumpkin.