Eggless Upside Down Persimmon & Olive Oil Cake

I have professed my love for Persimmons over and over again in my Eggless Persimmon Cake Loaf and a seasonal Persimmon Salad I created last winter. Though I love eating them raw without much fuss, I do love to try one recipe with them when they are in season. My father in law gets loads of Persimmons or Japani Fruit as it is called locally every winter. He has a friend who travels for business to Kullu and Leh twice every month and he gets about 10 kg for us on every visit. So you can imagine my joy with so many of these juicy incredible fruits from the orchards of Kullu.

It is a joy to add fruits to your desserts, don’t they just perk everything up. I had already tried to make cake loaf last fall, so I decided to make another favorite kind of fruit cake – Upside Down Cakes. I make Pineapple Upside Down cake a lot and shared the recipe for a Peach Upside Cake this Summer which is also wonderful. Now it was the turn of trying it with the gorgeous Persimmons and here it is – an Eggless Upside Down Persimmon and Olive Oil Cake.

PREPARATION TIME: 15 minutes
COOKING TIME: 45 minutes
SERVINGS: 10-12 slices
DIFFICULTY SCALE: Medium

INGREDIENTS: 

1. Persimmons – 2 ripe ones and 2 firm ones
2. All-purpose flour –2 cups
3. Milk powder – ¼ cup
4. Olive oil – 1 cup
5. Curd – ¾ cup
6. Sugar – 1 ¼ cups
7. Vanilla Extract – 2-3 drops
8. Baking powder – ½  teaspoon
9. Baking soda – ½ teaspoon
10. Pecans – 10-12
11. Walnuts – 10-12
12. Pumpkin Seeds – 2 tablespoons
13. Cinnamon Powder – ¼ teaspoon
14. Nutmeg Powder – a pinch
15. Ginger Powder – ¼ teaspoon
16. Salt – a pinch

UTENSILS/EQUIPMENT:

1. Mixer Grinder
2. Mixing bowl
3. Whisk
4. Cake Tin
5. OTG

RECIPE:

1. Dry roasts some walnuts, pecans, and pumpkin seeds on low heat. Keep stirring constantly so that they don’t brown and burn.

2. Take a big mixing bowl and sieve the all-purpose flour, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg powders, milk powder, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.
3. In a grinder jar, add 1 ¼ cups of sugar and grind it into a fine powder. Then add the pulp of 2 ripe Persimmons and ½ cup of curd and make a puree.
4. Add this puree to the dry ingredients and mix them with a whisk with light hands. Mix a few drops of vanilla extract too.
5. The dry fruits would have cooled down a bit, crush them roughly and add them to the batter as well.

6. Preheat the oven/OTG at 180 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes.
7. Dice two firm Persimmons into thin pieces and peel the skin off.
8. Line the cake mould with butter paper and sprinkle with some sugar. Place some persimmon slices next to each other.
9. Pour in the batter and tap it to level the batter and remove all air bubbles.
10. Place it in the pre-heated oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes and then turn down the heat slightly to 160 degree Celsius for the last 15 minutes.
11. Let the cake cool slightly before cutting it.

Take a big fat slice of this Eggless Upside Down Persimmon and Olive oil Cake and enjoy!