Chocolate Persimmon Cake with Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Icing made with roasted persimmons, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, and cocoa powder and frosted with brown sugar cream cheese icing. This cake is moist, perfectly sweet and so delicious!
BAKING WITH FRUIT
Most people tend to bake with fruit mainly in the summer, but winter also has amazing in- season fruit!
My favorite winter fruit are blood oranges! Check out these Blood Orange Cookies and this Blood Orange Olive Oil Cake. So good!
BAKING WITH PERSIMMONS
Persimmons have a delicate yet unique flavor. I love eating them as is, peeled or left unpeeled. They adds a natural sweetness to the cake.
CHOCOLATE PERSIMMON CAKE
This cake combines my two favorite ingredients: chocolate and fruit! This recipe is almost identical to my Chocolate Roasted Pear Bundt Cake with just a few changes:
- Fruit: Instead of pears, we’re using persimmons.
- Pans: Instead of a Bundt pan, we’re using two 8 inch round pans.
- Topping: Instead of cinnamon sugar and icing, we’re topping this Chocolate Persimmon Cake with the brown sugar cream cheese icing from my Pumpkin Carrot Cake recipe.
OTHER RECIPES WITH INTERESTING INGREDIENTS
This is not my first time baking with unexpected fruits and vegetables. In fact, if you’ve tried my delicious Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread, you will definitely want to make this. Other chocolate treats with unexpected ingredients are my Avocado Brownies and Banana Brownies!
WHAT’S IN THIS CHOCOLATE ROASTED PERSIMMON CAKE?
- Fresh Persimmons
- Lemon Juice
- Unsalted Butter (Room Temperature)
- Oil (Canola or Vegetable)
- Granulated Sugar
- Brown Sugar
- Eggs
- Vanilla Extract
- Buttermilk
- Flour
- Cocoa (Dutch Processed or Natural Cocoa)
- Baking Soda
- Cinnamon
- Nutmeg
- Salt
STEPS FOR MAKING THIS CAKE
- Roast then puree the persimmons.
- Prepare the batter.
- Prepare and fill the pans.
- Bake, cool and chill.
- Trim and level the cake.
- Stack and frost.
- Decorate.
ROAST THE PERSIMMONS
Roasting the persimmons makes this already perfectly sweet fruit a little sweeter and more flavorful. To roast them, dice the persimmons and spread them out on a baking sheet. Squeeze half a lemon and a sprinkle of sugar over them. Once roasted, puree the persimmon and set aside.
MIXING THE CAKE BATTER
Sift the dry ingredients together to combine them in one bowl.
In the other bowl, you’ll cream the butter, oil and sugars. Mix in the eggs, vanilla, buttermilk and pureed persimmons. Make sure to scrape down the sides of your bowl after each addition.
Stir the dry ingredients into the wet then pour the batter into two 8 inch pans. Bake 30-35 minutes.
HOW TO MAKE BROWN SUGAR CREAM CHEESE ICING
- USE ROOM TEMPERATURE INGREDIENTS: It’s essential to use room temperature cream cheese and butter. I recommend taking these ingredients out for at least an hour before making the icing.
- SIFT THE POWDERED SUGAR: Even though it’s going to go into a mixer, I highly recommend sifting it first. It only takes a minute and makes sure you don’t have any little bumps of powdered sugar in your icing.
- USE FRESH BROWN SUGAR: Brown sugar can get hard lumps if it’s not fresh which will make the sugar harder to dissolve into the icing.
- SCRAPE DOWN THE SIDES OF THE BOWL: I do this with any icing I make, but it’s especially helpful with this recipe to make sure the flavors are combined and that the brown sugar has dissolved.
- ALLOW THE CAKE TO COOL COMPLETELY BEFORE ICING IT: I know it’s tempting to want to dig in ASAP, but wait til your cake has cooled completely before icing it. The icing could melt a bit and become a little runny if the cake is still warm and we don’t want that.
BEST CHOCOLATE PERSIMMON CAKE
I’m so excited for you to try this fluffy, delicious Chocolate Persimmon Cake! The buttermilk and pureed roasted persimmons make it perfectly moist. It’s easy enough to make any day of the week and also makes an impressive dessert! I also love a slice for breakfast and don’t feel too bad about it because it has fruit in it!
Print
Chocolate Persimmon Cake with Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Icing
- Prep Time: 30
- Cook Time: 55
- Total Time: 1 hour 25 minutes
- Yield: 8-10 servings
- Category: Cakes
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Moist, delicious Chocolate Persimmon Cake made with persimmons, brown sugar and cocoa powder and topped with brown sugar cream cheese icing!
Ingredients
FOR THE CHOCOLATE PERSIMMON CAKE
- 3 persimmons, skin on or peeled, cored, and cubed
- juice from half a lemon
- 1 tablespoon of sugar
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1/2 cup canola or vegetable oil
- 1 cup sugar
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 2 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons flour
- 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon Dutch processed or natural cocoa
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 11/2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
FOR THE BROWN SUGAR CREAM CHEESE ICING
- 8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature (leave it at room temperature for at least an hour before making)
- 6 tablespoons butter, room temperature
- 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted, plus more if needed
- 1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla
- pinch of salt
FOR DECORATION, OPTIONAL
- 1–2 persimmons, sliced or chopped, for the top and sides
Instructions
FOR THE CAKE
- Spray the bottoms and sides of two nine inch pans with baking spray and line bottoms with parchment paper. Set aside.
- Preheat oven to 400 F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Toss the persimmons with the lemon juice and tablespoon of sugar. Spread the persimmons on the baking sheet and roast for 15 minutes Allow to cool slightly then puree half the persimmons in a food processor or blender. Set aside. Reduce heat to 350 F.
- In a medium sized bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl or the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the butter, oil, and sugars until combined and creamy. Mix in the eggs one at a time. Scrape down the sides of the bowl after each addition. Add the vanilla. With a spatula, stir in the buttermilk and the roasted chopped and pureed persimmon mixture followed by the dry ingredients, stirring until just combined.
- Spoon the mixture evenly into the prepared pans. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean or only with a few crumbs when inserted in the center or until cake springs back to the touch. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes then remove them from the pans to cool on wire racks completely. Once cooled, trim the edges and tops, if desired then tightly wrap each cake with plastic wrap and place in the freezer for at least two hours or overnight.
FOR THE BROWN SUGAR CREAM CHEESE ICING
- In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the cream cheese and butter on medium speed for one minute until creamed and combined. Add the brown sugar and mix on medium for another minute. Mix in the vanilla then turn the mixer on low and gradually mix in the powdered sugar.
ASSEMBLING THE CAKE
- Make the frosting and frost the cake. Press finely chopped persimmon bits on the bottom of the cake, if desired, and arrange slices on the top.
Keywords: brown sugar, cake, chocolate, chocolate cake, cream cheese icing, fruit, layered cake, persimmon
I’d never heard of persimmons until reading your informative recipe. Love that!
★★★★★
So happy to have introduced you to persimmons! I hope you get to try this persimmon cake! 🙂
So delicious but the real star in my opinion is the brown sugar cream cheese frosting. It’s tangy and sweet with a deeper flavor from the brown sugar. I’ll definitely be making it again!
I left the skin on my persimmons and puréed all of them, next time I’ll skin them so it’s a smoother texture. But otherwise the cake was great – a wonderful texture and flavor!
★★★★★
Thank you for making this chocolate persimmon cake, Elisabeth! Great idea to peel the persimmons. So happy you loved this cake! I totally agree about that brown sugar cream cheese frosting!! I’ve used it on three recipes so far! Glad it’s a keeper for you too! XO Natalie