Persimmon and Orange Tea Cake.

In the winter,  how wonderful it is, to see orange Persimmon hanging like beautiful orange Christmas baubles on a naked tree.  They are an unusual and beautiful sight.  I love the look of their ancient looking calyexes too.  When other deciduous trees are bare these have lost their leaves but are laden with fruit.   And unusually, when the weather gets colder and frosts begin to set in this aids the ripening of the fruit.  I always prefer to team ingredients that nature presents together.  Oranges are ripening now too.

That is how I came up with the idea of putting these ingredients together into a yummy tea cake.   Tea cakes really present well at any time of the day or night.  Not too rich.  Easy to make and to cut, and with a delicious and moorish texture.

This is how I do it.

Ingredients for the Cake

1 1/2 cups Self Raising flour

Ingredients for the Topping

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Method

Set oven to 170 degrees Celsius.  Line a 30cm log tin with baking paper.

In a medium bowl, add the butter, sugar and orange zest.

Mix together, then cream at high speed until the mixture looks pale and fluffy.  add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  the mixture should be very light and fluffy.

Then add the persimmon pulp, self raising flour and orange juice, beat ingredients together for one minute.  The mixture has a beautiful apricot colour.

Turn the mixture into he prepared tin and bake for about 50 minutes or until the cake is golden on top and bouncy to touch.

Meanwhile prepare caster sugar and cinnamon and mix together well.  When the cake is removed from the oven, gently rub the butter over the top of the cake until its evenly distributed.  Sprinkle the sugar mixture over the top.