Apple, pistachio and persimmon cake

A delicious, moreish, warm and cosy pudding of a cake this - made to use some apples from our friends Emma and Geraint's garden that I brought home after a lovely supper with them yesterday. 

Ingredients

3 large cooking apples

5 oz pistachios (unsalted)

2 persimmons

8 oz butter

10 oz caster sugar

10 oz self-raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp cinnamon

2 tbsp soft brown sugar

2 tbsp flaked almonds

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C and grease and line a brownie tin.
2. Peel, core and roughly chop the apples and place in a bowl of water with a little lemon juice to prevent them from browning.
3. Spread the pistachios out on a baking sheet and place in the oven for 5 minutes, keeping an eye on them to make sure they don’t burn. Once toasted, place in a food processor and blitz until finely ground.
4. Slice the persimmons in half and scoop out their flesh into a food processor. Blitz until puréed and set aside.
5. In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
6. Fold in the persimmon purée.
7. Measure out the flour and set aside.
8. Add the eggs to the butter and sugar mixture one at a time, followed by a large spoonful of flour between each egg.  Beat well after each addition.
9. Sift in the remaining flour, baking powder and cinnamon, and beat to combine smoothly.
10. Fold in the drained, chopped apple and ground pistachios.
11. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and sprinkle with brown sugar and flaked almonds.
12. Bake for 50 mins or until a cake tester comes out clean.
13. Leave to cool for ten minutes before cutting into squares to serve.