Lemon-Glazed Persimmon Cakes

You will also need:

1. A food processor or blender to make the persimmon pulp.
2. A baking pan: suggested sizes are 12-inches by 8-inches or 10-inches by 14-inches. The baking times for both sizes will be approximately the same.
3. Two large mixing bowls.
4. A small mixing bowl for making the lemon glaze.
5. A whisk.
6. A regular dinner fork for glazing the cakes.

For the cakes:

1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Grease and flour the baking pan.
2. Combine the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, baking soda and salt in a bowl.
3. Put the persimmons in the food processor and mix them until they turn into a smooth pulp. Pour 1 cup of pulp into another mixing bowl. (Any extra pulp may be frozen to use later—with the addition of a few more persimmons—to make, for example, a sorbet or a parfait with softened vanilla ice cream swirled through with persimmon puree.)
4. Stir the egg into the persimmon pulp, then add the brown sugar and mix them all together well.
5. Stir the melted butter and lemon juice into the persimmon mixture.
6. By hand, so as not to over-mix, stir in the dry ingredients, 1/3 at a time, until everything is just combined.
7. Add the currants and nuts.
8. Spread the batter in the pan and bake for about 25 minutes. Remove the cake from the oven. Cool it in the pan for about 10 minutes, then turn it out onto a rack and finish cooling it while you make the lemon glaze.

For the lemon glaze:

Put the powdered sugar in a small mixing bowl and whisk in enough of the lemon juice to make a thick, creamy icing.

Glazing and cutting the cakes:

1. Dip the tines of a dinner fork in the icing and dribble it off the fork’s pointed tips onto the cake, back and forth, in an irregular crisscross pattern.
2. Cut the big cake into little square cakes.

An acknowledgement: The recipe for these cakes is adapted from one in the essay, “The Case for Handwriting”, by cook and writer Deborah Madison. Her essay was published at ZesterDaily.com and later included in the book Best Food Writing 2011, edited by Holly Hughes.