Friday, May 08, 2015

Butternut Squash 'Healthyish' Cake

A lovely moist and naturally sweet cake. Play around with the amount of Muscovado vs Sultanas - the first version I tried was a bit to overly sweet... But I don't have a sweet tooth...

75g Wholegrain Spelt flour, (unrefined with all the goodness)
1½ tsp Baking Powder,
160g Butternut squash, roasted and blitzed (just put the whole Squash in the oven on a backing tray, medium temp for about 40 mins until a skewer/knife slides in and out of the flesh easily and clean. Your choice whether to leave the caramelized skin on before you blitz it, but do top/tail it and de-seed it!)
75g Light Brown Muscovado Sugar (unrefined with all the goodness)
75g Softened butter
2 Eggs, medium
30g Sultanas
Grated zest of an Orange
Half of the Orange, juice squeezed into the mix

Pre-heat oven to 190°C

1] Line a 20cm round shallow tin with baking paper and grease.
2] Sieve the Flour & Baking Powder into a bowl and hand mix in the Muscovado Sugar and Sultanas.
3] Add the Butter, Eggs, Orange Juice and Zest then spatula/spoon hand work it together until blended.
4] Add the Butternut Squash. You will have to judge how much, to get a not too wet texture.
5] Pour into the tin and level.
6] Bake in the centre of oven for 20 - 25 mins until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
7] Allow to cool for 10 mins in the tin before transferring to a cooling rack.

Substitute roasted Parsnip for the Butternut Squash for an earthier flavour. Just put them on a baking tray, unpeeled/untrimmed, drizzled with some Oil/Salt/Pepper. Trim the tops and blitz.

Try adding in spices such as All-Spice, ground Roasted Cumin, Ginger etc when you mix up the Flour & Baking Powder.

Extra experiments to be done replacing the Butter with Coconut Oil/Solids...