Squash Gingerbread

A treacle cake with squash and plenty of spice

This is a great recipe for using up cooked squash from other recipes or meals. More often than not I will roast off a squash with it simply cut in half to make gnocchi or mash to top a pie, or perhaps to enrich baked beans… whatever the reason, because squash are not a uniform vegetable, I often have some cooked puree in the fridge.

If the ingredients are all a similar temperature this helps them to emulsify. Finer bakes do require a more considered approach, but for this… beat it and chuck it in.

Makes a 24cm square or 28cm round cake tin
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 35-40 minutes

Ingredients:
180 – 200g cooked Winter Sweet or Crown Prince squash
240g self raising flour
180g soft butter
140g caster sugar
220g black treacle
1/5 tsp baking powder
4 eggs
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp mixed spice
¼ fresh grated nutmeg
Icing sugar for the glaze
Your favourite liquor or cordial
Preheat the oven to 160°C


1.                Start by lining the cake tin with parchment on the base and butter around the sides. 

2.               Add the softened butter and squash puree to a mixer bowl and beat together to break up the lumps of squash.

3.               Add all the remaining ingredients and, using a ‘K’ paddle, beat to a uniform texture.  

4.               Pour into the prepared tin and bake in the bottom third of the preheated oven for 35 minutes before checking. 

5.               While the cake is baking, and after clearing up, there is time to make some icing. Blend a couple of heaped dessert spoons of icing sugar with a teaspoon of your favourite liquor or cordial. Amaretto or sloe cordial are delicious. Beat to a slack paste, adding more liquid very slowly if necessary. The consistency should be runny but very reluctantly. 

6.               The cake will be cooked when a skewer comes out cleanly from the middle and the sides have slightly pulled away from the tin. Remove from the oven and leave to stand for two minutes before taking out of the tin. Cool on a wire rack before icing the top and portioning.

Chef Notes:
1.                When adding a cooked vegetable puree to a cake it is important to keep it dry. The puree will take the place of butter and a little sugar while needing slightly less flour. As a basic rule of thumb reduce butter and flour by 10%-20% for every 225g of puree. 
2.               Using the bottom third of an oven keeps the cake from colouring up too much.