Kaki fruits are in full season and can be of an acquired taste. They are delicious on their own, eaten as an apple, or transformed into a very tasty cake as you will soon discover!

Kaki is also known as Persimmon or Sharon fruit depending on its provenance

Ingredients:

Kaki filling:

• 2 tbsp butter
• 45g dark brown sugar
• 4 Kakis peeled and chopped
• 2 tbsp lemon juice, fresh if you can (unlike me!)
• 2 tbsp cornstarch
• 60ml water

For the batter:

• 110g soft butter
• 125g light brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 525g flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp bicarbonate soda
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• ¼tsp salt
• 375ml buttermilk (if unavailable, make your own adding 3 tsp white wine vinegar to skimmed or semi milk)
• 1 tsp cinnamon extract

For the crumbs topping:

• 55g butter
• 75g flour
• 75g light brown or vanilla sugar
• ¼ tsp ground vanilla

Preparation:

1. Fruit filling:

• Melt the butter in a medium size pan and add the brown sugar
• Add the chopped fruits and lemon juice and cook, stirring for 2 to 3mn
• In a small bowl, dissolve the cornstarch in the water
• Add to the pan and cook a further 2mn until thick
• Leave to cool down completely

2. Cake batter:

• Start by making up the buttermilk if you haven’t got any
• Preheat oven to 180°C/ 160°fan/ Gas 4 and grease or line a 23cm/ 9″ round or square cake tin
• In the mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and creamy
• Add one egg at a time, beating well each time

• In a mixing bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, soda, salt and cinnamon

• Add the dry ingredients alternatively with the buttermilk and cinnamon extract to the egg mixture and beat until well incorporated

3. Crumble:

• In a mixing bowl (use the flour one and save on washing!) combine the butter, flour, sugar and ground vanilla using your fingers until you get fine crumbs

4. Assembly:

• Spread half of the batter in the prepared cake tin
• cover with the fruit filling
• Drop spoonfuls of the remaining batter, as much apart as you can

• Sprinkle the crumble over evenly

• Bake in the oven for 50to 55mn, until golden brown and skewer comes out clean

• Leave to cool slightly and serve warm with custard or ice cream…. although cold the next day was just as nice! If it lasts that long…. 😉