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When the evenings begin to nip and the light becomes clearer than it has been for months, you know it’s pawpaw time. The fruit of Asimina triloba begins to ripen in early autumn. My pawpaw streusel cake is a fall treat that uses aromatic pawpaw pulp, freed of its glossy seeds, and spiced with native spicebush—a forest companion of pawpaw trees—whose warm orange inflections seem created for this pawpaw pairing.
Read on for this pawpaw cake recipe, a source for the spicebush, and where to buy pawpaws in (and out) of season.
A quick recap in case of confusion: What pawpaw are we talking about? Our pawpaw is cold-hardy and native to Eastern North America. The tree is in the genus Asimina, and most commonly seen species is A. triloba. It is related to soursop and custard apples, and shares their distinctively big, glossy seeds. But pawpaw is also the name in some (previously or currently Commonwealth) countries for papaya—subtropical and tropical Papaya carica—filled with myriad tiny, peppery seeds.
When I first began developing a recipe for pawpaw streusel cake, I relied on the very good pawpaw purée as well as fresh fruit shipped by Integration Acres, a diversified farm and foraging outfit in Southeast Ohio (and also the founders of the annual Ohio Pawpaw Festival). These pioneering pawpaw advocates also sell dried spicebush berries (they’re actually drupes, botanically—the fruit of Lindera benzoin; picture allspice, but more oval than round). Now, I have a more local network of trees, wild and tame, to provide fruit when I am vigilant with the timing and lucky with weather.
Pawpaws need to be within a few of days of ripeness when harvested. Left in a bag, like avocados, they will ripen. But too green, and they’ll just sit there, untransformed, all their months of maturing wasted. A light touch or gentle shaking of a branch should dislodge the ready fruit.
Pawpaw Purée
This is an effective way to preserve pawpaw pulp—its flavor stays magically intact after freezing and thawing. Use it for this cake, as well as for life-changing ice cream.
Slice ripe, soft pawpaws in half, remove the fat seeds, and scrape the pulp into a bowl. Transfer the pulp to a food processor and spin until smooth (or press it through a strainer). Make sure not to include any seeds by accident. Like other fruit seeds, they are toxic, and in this case, highly laxative. Freeze the pulp in small containers, or use straight away.
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