Peremptorily Plump Persimmon Pudding (Cake)

This weekend, I am moved once again to write about yet another neighborly gift turned tasty treat. Several nights ago, while watering my garden - I heard a kind "hello" coming from the sidewalk. Our neighbors from down the street who had given me that giant pink banana squash came by to say hello. This is the first time I've seen them since our introduction. They asked me if I like persimmons and I happily replied that I do. Well, these kind folks said that they would be by tomorrow night with some persimmons for me. I felt so lucky! I also immediately started to think about what I could give them? After a brief online conversation with Ms. E.T. herself - we came to the conclusion that I should give them some cherry preserves produced from a previous cherry picking excursion that E.T. and I conducted.

The next evening, around the same time, the husband came by the house with a bag FULL of persimmons: 3 ripe hachiyas and many more of the fuyu. I ran back inside the house to grab my jar of preserves - I was so happy to give something back!

boo bear really seemed to appreciate the persimmons

vanilla, flour, baking powder and soda, walnuts, eggs, milk,
butter, and of course, persimmon pulp

I ended up finding a recipe for persimmon pudding cake that sounded pretty good and decided that I should give that a try! It was perfect for my 3 ripe hachiyas. It's a very simple recipe and I am proud to report that only a few snags occurred along the way. There is not a size requirement in the recipe for the square glass pan - and I was not keen on putting the mixture in a pan that was too large or too small. So I decided to compromise and split the mixture between two cooking pans. About half-way through the baking process, I noticed a whole lot of smoke coming from the top of the oven. Nothing smelled burnt - but boy was there smoke! I opened the oven door to see that my pudding cakes were both a good inch or so above the rim of the pan - and juices were spilling out onto the foil I had (thankfully) lined on the bottom of the oven. I made the decision to just keep keeping' on and to open up some extra windows/doors around the house to manage the smoke. This recipe was going to work, damn it!

After waiting a couple minutes beyond the suggested time - I took out the two items and left them on the cooling rack. They looked pretty good, especially that pool of butter that was swimming around the center of both cakes.

note: the butter pool and the plumpness of the
out of oven experience

Fifteen minutes later and my pudding cakes were super-deflated, but my happiness was not. I figured that a pudding cake is probably not too different from a bread pudding - so a deflated cake was still an acceptable cake in my book.

no more butter pools and mr. rectangle cake
in the back is severely deflated

I'd probably use a bit less butter in the recipe next time, it's a bit overwhelming on the soggier portions of the cake - ya know, probably those parts that absorbed the previous pool of butter? I'll probably also use that large glass pan next time too, rather than these deeper, smaller dishes I used today. But, despite some slightly overwhelming butter bites, the cake is good and is none too sweet either!

all is yummy on the Katy front...