When I was a little girl, my first swim lessons came from my Mom. She taught me a lovely, languid side stroke by showing the stroke’s motion as she sang an old folk tune: “Pickin’ up paw paws, put ‘em in your pocket, pickin’ up paw paws, put’ em in your pocket.” With each phrase, her arm stretched to “pluck” and then to “tuck” in perfect harmony with the stroke.
It would be years before I actually ate a paw paw, those custardy banana/mango-like fruits native to much of the Eastern United States. I wish I’d done so sooner—they are delicious! Paw paws grow wild in our forests, and farmers markets sell them from late-August through to first frost. But because they are hard to store and ship, you won’t find them in grocery stores. Luckily for our family, a neighbor has cultivated a paw paw tree right in her front yard and shares the bounty.
Paw paws are best eaten when fragrant and fully ripe. It’s important to carefully remove and discard the skins, which are bitter, and the seeds, which are poisonous. That done, you’ll have a bowl full of bright yellow custard-like fruit flesh. Some like to whirl the fruit into ice cream, but we enjoy it in this cake. Standing tall with two moist layers and an old-fashioned boiled frosting (light, fluffy and less sugary than buttercream) it makes the most of this indigenous American–but very tropical-tasting, fruit. I’ve topped the cake with tart-sweet little cape gooseberries (also known as goldenberries or groundcherries) and a swirl of paw paw puree.
Paw Paw Cake with Silky Ermine Icing
Ingredients
- FOR THE PAW PAW CAKE:
- 2 cups paw paw puree made from ripe paw paws, peels and skins discarded, plus 2 Tbsp for garnish
- 4 large eggs
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
- ¼ tsp cinnamon
- FOR THE SILKY ERMINE ICING:
- 1 ½ cups sugar
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- 2 cups whole milk
- 3 sticks softened unsalted butter, cut into Tbsp.-sized pieces
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- FOR THE GARNISH:
- 2 Tbsp reserved paw paw puree mixed with 2 tsp honey
- 7 cape gooseberries
Instructions
- MAKE CAKE: Preheat oven to 350F. Wash paw paws well. Discard peels, placing fruit in a large bowl. Pluck out and discard seeds. Puree fruit pulp.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat eggs. Add sugar, vegetable oil and paw paw puree and beat until well mixed.
- Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon together.
- Add half of the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in the mixer bowl. Blend. Add remaining dry ingredients and mix until no white streaks remain.
- Grease two 9-inch cake pans. Fit with circles of parchment paper. Grease parchment paper. Divide cake batter between the two pans. Place in oven. (NOTE: While cake bakes you’ll make frosting.) Bake cake at 350F for 35 minutes until top of cakes spring back when touched. Remove from oven to a cooling rack and completely cool.
- MAKE SILKY ERMINE FROSTING: Warm milk in microwave for 30 seconds. In a pot over medium heat, whisk sugar, flour and salt together. Add warmed milk and whisk continuously for 5 to 5 ½ minutes until mixture heats to boiling and has thickened to into a pudding-like consistency. Remove from heat. Pour pudding into the bowl of a stand mixer. Chill mixer bowl with pudding in it in refrigerator for 15 minutes. Remove from fridge and set bowl in mixer fitted with whisk attachment. Whisk at medium speed for 15 minutes. When mixture has cooled to room temperature, add four tablespoons of the softened butter and whip in. Continue adding and whipping in the butter until all is incorporated. Add vanilla. Turn mixer to high speed and whip another five minutes until the frosting is fluffy and billowy.
- FROST CAKE: Once cake has completely cooled, place one layer on serving plate. Top with frosting. Place second layer on top. Frost top and sides of cake with remaining icing. If desired, decorate the top of cake with small cape gooseberries and a swirl of paw paw puree mixed with honey.
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