Hachiya Persimmon Bundt Cake

Jenn, who blogs over at Cultivating Me, texted me last weekend to see if I had any ideas for using Hachiya persimmons.  I'd actually never had a persimmon before.  Like never, ever.  I knew there was more than one kind of persimmon, the two most common are hachiya and fuyu.

But as luck would have it, they just happened to be on sale at my local Italian market that very same week.  So I picked some up.  I don't know that I'd recommend eating them plain.  :(  Eating them makes your mouth feel funny.  The astringents in the hachiya actually make your mouth feel furry when you eat one.

Then she suggested that you could bake with them.  Now baking I can do!  I decided to puree the persimmons and use them in a bundt cake with oatmeal flour to keep everything moist.  Besides pureeing, this recipe basically has only two steps. The best part is that a bundt cake looks fancy all on it's own so you don't need to frost it, which means less work and less sugar.  

Hachiya Persimmon Bundt Cake

1 cup flour

1 cup oatmeal flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon grated fresh nutmeg

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted

1 2/3 cup hachiya persimmon puree

3 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/4 cup spicebox whisky

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 10-cup bundt cake pan.

In a medium bowl whisk together all of the dry ingredients.  In a large bowl, whisk together all wet ingredients.  Slowly mix dry into wet until all ingredients are incorporated.  Scrape into greased bundt pan and bake for about 40 minutes.  Use a toothpick to test for doneness.  Cool in pan 10 minutes, remove from pan and cool completely on a wire rack.

Marbled Bundt Cake

I absolutely love bundt cake.  Pretty much any flavor with or without frosting.  They're all my favorites.  I'd easily pick them over another dessert.  This is my go to recipe.  It's incredibly simple.  It uses ingredients that are found in most American kitchens and it always turns out fabulous.

You can also serve this to guests and they'll never guess that its just a doctored cake mix.  I know, I know, I'm huge on baking and cooking things from scratch.  But I've been using this recipe for forever.  We're talking at least middle school.  I've seriously been baking and cooking that long.

Marbled Bundt Cake

1 yellow cake mix
1 small box instant vanilla pudding
1 1/4 cups water
1/3 cup oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 eggs

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Grease 12 cup bundt pan.  If you use a pan with lots of fluting, make sure to flour also.

Place all ingredients in mixing bowl.  Beat on low for 30 seconds, scraping bowl as needed.  Beat on high for 2 minutes.

Remove 1 1/2 cups batter to a small bowl.  Add to that 3/4 cup powdered sugar and 1/4 cup baking cocoa.  Mix well. 

Pour rest of batter into pan evenly.  Drop chocolate mixture by the spoonful on to batter already in the pan.  Using a knife swirl through chocolate to marble batter. 

Bake 40-46 minutes until a test toothpick comes out clean.  Cool for 15 minutes in the pan before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.

I have to brag about my beautiful rose metal cake dome.  I absolutely love it.  I found it at a garage sale for fifty cents!!  Can you believe it?  Its incredibly nifty.  It has locking tabs on the bottom of the platter which keeps the cover on whilst traveling or just sitting on the counter.  I can't imagine using anything else to serve a cake with.  I used to have a Mikasa Crystal cake stand which was pretty, but the base cracked off when it was being washed.  And that was the end of that.  I'm sure you'll be seeing more of it in recipes to come.