Brown Butter Persimmon Skillet Cake

This simple brown butter persimmon skillet cake served with lots of caramel sauce is cozy and warm and just right for the tough transition from fall to winter!

Some cakes are show stoppers and some are quick and simple comfort! This one is the latter that you eat with coffee on a relaxed holiday afternoon while catching up with your family or friends or your sister. Although my sister would have berated me for not serving her a 4-layer chocolate cake with a side of chocolate chip cookies. But that’s her.

This brown butter skillet cake topped with persimmons or any fruit really is just a simple, soft spongy cake that makes your home smell wonderful and provides an excuse to bring out that jar of caramel sauce from your fridge and some ice-cream too if you please!

Since I started working two weeks back, I haven’t had much time to bake and off days are spent feeling a bit numb and catching up on chores and meal planning. You guys, all I really needed was to bake something that would not require me to start the stand mixer and dirty a 100 pans and yet make my house smell like something buttery was baking. I really needed some baking therapy. And I couldn’t bother to do recipe research and dig into Pinterest so I winged this one based on my Brown Butter Skillet Cake and Halleluiah it turned out pretty good! A baking win was so important after my brain and body numbing work weeks. How dramatic!!! (it really isn’t so bad)

I had persimmons sitting around which I was bored to eat as is so I decided to make an upside-down cake. I forgot to peel it and it tasted slightly bitter. So please peel your persimmon. The great thing is that you can make this with probably any fruit sitting around on your counter.

Notes

• This cake has prep stages so following the order will be helpful. Have the skinned and sliced persimmon ready. Then brown the butter because it has to cool a bit before it goes into the batter.
• If you are not a fan of brown butter, I would suggest simply melting the butter before adding to the batter and increasing the spices for a lovely spiced flavor.
• Peeling the persimmon is highly recommended. As is using extra ripe fruit. If you have never purchased a persimmon or have consistent bad luck with it, maybe reading this will help.   
• Browning butter in a cast iron skillet can be a tad misleading because you can’t see the brown bits. If you are not careful you run the risk of over browning or blackening the butter! Use a small light colored saucepan if that is more comfortable.
  

Brown Butter Persimmon Skillet Cake

Ingredients – 9inch cake
¾ cup (170g) + 2tbsp butter

1 ripe fuyu persimmon – skinned and sliced into thin rounds

1½ cups (200g) all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp cardamom
½ tsp cinnamon

3 large eggs at room temperature
¼ cup (55g) granulated sugar
¾ cup (115g) + ¼ cup (40g) brown sugar
½ tsp vanilla extract
½ cup (120g) buttermilk at room temperature

Brown the butter

1. First, heat butter in a cast iron skillet on medium heat. Once it starts to bubble, stir intermittently with a rubber spatula and keep an eye. Once you smell nutty deliciousness in the air take it off the heat.
2. Pour most of it into a clean bowl and set it aside to cool slightly. Save about 2 tbsp in the skillet. Swirl it around the pan so that it coats the skillet sides. Using a spatula helps.

Bake the cake

1. Heat oven to 350F.
2. Add ¼ cup brown sugar to the 2tbsps of browned butter in the cast iron skillet and heat on medium till just melted. Don’t let it bubble and crystalize. Take it off the heat and lay the sliced persimmon rounds on the skillet starting with one slice in the centre and the other slices around it in a circle, overlapping one another.
3. In a large bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cardamom and cinnamon.
4. In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs, granulated sugar, ¾ cup of brown sugar, vanilla, the warm (but not hot) browned butter and buttermilk, till smooth.
5. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and fold till just combined. Pour batter into the skillet on top of the layered persimmon.
6. Bake in the centre of the oven, for 30 – 35 minutes till toothpick inserted comes out clean. Take it out of the oven and let cool till skillet is completely cool and safe to handle without mitts.
7. Loosen edges of the cake with a paring knife and flip the cake out onto a large serving platter. This cake is heavy but delicate when warm, so holding the platter upside down firmly against the skillet and flipping the cake is the best way. It does take muscle power!
8. I found that this cake is best eaten warm, drizzled with some caramel. If storing in the fridge, heat it just a touch in the microwave before serving.

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