Moist persimmon cake with almonds and cinnamon: the secret is 350 grams of very ripe, soft fruit - firm persimmons won't do

Persimmons split people into two camps: some wait for them all year, others can't forget the astringent taste of a fruit eaten too early. Precisely because of that taste, this cake uses the classic soft variety - very ripe, sweet, fragrant, with flesh you can almost eat with a spoon. The firm, crunchy variety you eat like an apple doesn't work here. The recipe is not a diet one - 180 grams of sugar don't lie - but it is a cake that uses persimmons exactly when they are at their ripest.

Ingredients (22-centimetre tin): 350 g persimmon pulp, peeled and seeded (about 450-550 g whole fruit), 4 eggs, 180 g sugar, 100 ml mild olive or sunflower oil, 100 g plain full-fat unsweetened yoghurt, 250 g cake flour, 60 g ground almonds, 12 g baking powder, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, a pinch of salt and, if you like, the zest of half an orange. For the tin: butter or oil, baking paper and icing sugar for dusting.

Method: Peel the persimmons, remove the stalks and seeds, weigh out 350 g of pulp and blend it into a smooth purée. If they are very ripe, a fork is enough. Preheat the oven to 175°C, top and bottom heat without the fan, with the rack in the middle. Grease the tin and line the base with baking paper.

Beat the eggs with the sugar using a mixer for 4-5 minutes, until the mixture has risen, turned pale and become foamy. On low speed, add the oil in a thin stream, then the yoghurt, the persimmon purée and the orange zest. Separately, sift the flour with the baking powder and add the almonds, cinnamon and salt. Fold the dry mixture into the wet in two or three goes, with a spatula, just until the flour disappears. The batter should be thick but still flowing. Pour it into the tin, level it and tap it lightly on the counter once or twice to release the larger air bubbles.

Bake for 45-60 minutes. Start checking at 45 minutes, and don't open the oven for the first 35-40. The cake is done when the top is golden and firm and a skewer comes out without raw batter - a few moist crumbs are fine. Leave it in the tin for about 15 minutes, turn it out onto a rack, peel off the paper and let it cool completely before slicing. You can dust it with icing sugar before serving.

Why it works (and why it doesn't): persimmons bring a lot of moisture, so baking time varies - if the top colours too quickly, cover it with foil. Don't add more purée "to make it moister" without changing the other ingredients. Weigh on scales, not with a cup: too much flour makes the cake dry and heavy. And don't mix for long once the flour goes in - thorough beating only makes sense at the start, with the eggs and sugar. Keep it in a closed container, and if it's stored in the fridge, take it out a little before serving.

Persimmons originate in Asia and are a source of fibre and potassium, vitamins A and C, carotenoids and polyphenols. They contain a lot of water, little fat and no cholesterol. So it's best to eat most of them fresh and save the cake for the weekend.