A beautifully light yet moist cake where the squash replaces butter. It’s also lower in sugar than most and gluten free which makes it a relatively healthy cake. So get baking and enjoy some of your ten-a-day with a slice of this almond and squash cake.
On New Year’s Day, we had friends over for a nut roast dinner. One of the side dishes I made to accompany it was a squash gratin. And very nice it was too. I really must put the recipe up on the blog one day. I digress though.
Boston Marrow
In order to make this traybake we broke into one of our enormous Boston Marrow squashes. You can see how big they are by the size of CT’s foot. He takes a size 12. This meant, of course, we had tons left over. We roasted and mashed some for the freezer, made squash curry, squash scones and squash soup. We still had some left over, so it seemed like an ideal ingredient to use up in this month’s We Should Cocoa challenge.
Boston Marrow have firm orange flesh and are easier to grow in our climate than most. They are also thin skinned, like a butternut squash, so are easy to prepare. The downside of this is that they don’t keep very well.
This means we’ve been supping on squash soups, curries or stews most nights for the last month or so. I’ve made pumpkin syrup, pumpkin biscotti, pumpkin butter and a chocolate pecan pumpkin cake. Luckily, I love squash, so I’m sort of pleased and sort of sad that we’ve only got enough left of this year’s crop for another four or five meals plus maybe some pumpkin scones.
As a post Christmas special, Chele has chosen leftovers, something we probably all have after the seasonal splurge. So all I had to do was find a recipe. BrownievilleGirl came to my rescue and suggested I make these blondies.
The original recipe came from Harry Eastwood’s Red Velvet Chocolate Heartache. I have been wanting to try one of her cake recipes for a long time. So this almond and squash cake is a win win all round.
Almond and Squash Cake
The cake is a bit different to your norm. The recipe substitutes vegetables for butter, is gluten free and uses less sugar than one would normally expect. I’m not convinced by the idea that butter is bad for you, but I’m willing to try butterless baking occasionally and it’s always good to expand one’s repertoire.
The result is very pleasing, although it’s definitely cake rather than brownie. I was mostly struck by the texture of this almond and squash cake. It’s beautifully light and not at all what I expected from a cake cooked with mostly ground nuts and vegetables. In fact, I couldn’t detect the nuts within the cake at all.
As well as the texture, I really loved its colour. Yellow flecked with orange. I put the glorious yellow colour down to the duck eggs. You don’t have to use duck eggs, but I highly recommend them for cake baking. The cake is moist with a nice crunch of nuts on the top. Neither is it too sweet. Not until, that is, you bite into a chunk of white chocolate.
This almond and squash cake is just the thing to serve at a tea party for the health conscious or wheat intolerant. And for an even healthier version, you can easily leave out the chocolate. Thank you BVG, I’m really pleased I tried it.
Other Vegetable Bakes You Might Like
- Beetroot chocolate cake
- Carrot cake flapjacks
- Chocolate courgette cake
- Courgette cake with lime & mascarpone frosting
- Jerusalem artichoke cake
- Parsnip & walnut cake
- Spinach cake with lemon
Keep in Touch
Thanks for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make this almond and squash cake, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. And do please rate the recipe. Have you any top tips? Do share photos on social media too and use the hashtag #tinandthyme, so I can spot them.
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If you’d like more traybake recipes, follow the link and you’ll find I have quite a lot of them. All delicious, of course.
Choclette x
Gluten-Free Almond Squash Cake. PIN IT.
Almond and Squash Cake – The Recipe
Almond and Squash Cake
Ingredients
- 3 large eggs (I used duck eggs)
- 120 g golden caster sugar (I used vanilla sugar)
- 250 g winter squash or pumpkin – grated
- 50 g buckwheat flour
- 2 tsp baking powder (gluten free)
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp sea or rock salt (I use Himalayan pink salt)
- 100 g ground almonds
- 100 g white chocolate chopped
- 30 g flaked almonds
Instructions
- Beat the eggs with the sugar until thick, pale and creamy.
- Stir in the grated squash.
- Sieve and then fold in the flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon and salt.
- Fold in the ground almonds.
- Pour half the mixture into a 9″ sq silicone cake mould or lined tin. Scatter over 100g chopped white chocolate then spooned on the remaining mixture.
- Scatter the almond flakes over the top.
- Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180℃ (350℉, Gas 4) for 25 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out more or less clean.
- Leave to cool then cut into 16 squares.
Notes
Nutrition Estimate
Sharing
I’m sharing this recipe for gluten-free almond squash cake with Curly’s Cooking for #CookBlogShare.
Cat | Curly's Cooking says
Wow! Healthy cakes do exist! This looks so moist and delicious, what a great idea. Thanks for linking to #CookBlogShare.
Choclette says
Well healthy might be pushing it a bit, but definitely healthier.
Beth Sachs says
I love making cakes with vegetables, but have never tried squash. It looks lovely and moist.
Choclette says
I’ve gone through most vegetables now and all the ones I’ve tried have worked well. It’s a fun way to use veg.
Camilla says
The combination of sweet squash and almond in this cake sound perfect, bet this makes a beautifully moist cake:-)
Choclette says
Thanks Camilla, it was a lovely textured cake and surprised me by being really light.
Herbert Appleby says
A truly delectable slice of cake I see here.
Anonymous says
Fantastic recipe – I bake glutenfree all the time and this is a combination of ingredients I hadn’t come across before.
Hazel Rea – @beachrambler
Choclette says
CityHippy – I’m not used to light cakes, so it took some getting used to 😉
BVG – excellent.
Brownieville Girl says
My utter pleasure Choclette – delighted you like it!
Looks wonderful.
cityhippyfarmgirl says
Yum. Looks lovely, light and moist.
Choclette says
MaryMoh – Thank you. I had to make a bit of an effort for healthy January 😉
MaryMoh says
This looks simple, healthy and delicious. I’m all for it. Would be so good with a cup of tea in the afternoon. Thanks very much for sharing.
Choclette says
Chele – think it would be very hard to make a true butterless brownie, but I’m always happy to be proved wrong.
Kath – those squash were rather big for just the two of us and our freezer filled up quite quickly. But they are great squash and we shall be growing them again next year.
Catherine – that’s the beauty of using veg in a cake, it makes one feel less guilty 😉
Hannah – if only it wasn’t for the eggs, this would be a good vegan cake.
Dom – might not these be allowed on your new regime – as you say they are … sort of …. healthy?
CC – I’ve never heard of anyone being allergic to squash before. Very happy for you to admire it though.
Celia – we love squash, but it was rather a big one and our storage space is limited. For all that, we will be growing these ones again – make sure we have a mega curry party or something next time we crack one open 😉
Gillian – it was an exciting cake to make, I really didn’t know how it was going to turn out.
Zoe – thanks for following
Kitchenmaid – best not to think of these as brownies – wouldn’t want anyone being disappointed.
Johanna – these are definitely not your typical brownies, which is why I prefer to think of them as cakes.
Jill – thanks, I’ll do my best to remember you 😉
Wendy – this is a great one for those on dairy and/or gluten free diets – as long as you don’t put the white chocolate in!
Millie – thank you. Do let me know if you make this (or anything else). It’s always interesting to find out what others think.
*✿*millie meadowsweet*✿* says
so glad i called by today. i have a squash that needs using up and a whole day to myself to do as i please :o)
i also want to try the shortbread and chocolate dipped candied peel mmmmmmm you are about to make my family very happy :o)
warmest wishes xxx
millie
Wendy@The Omnivorous Bear says
What a great cake… I am sending a link to my dairy/gluten intolerant brother! He will Love this!
Jill Colonna says
Love it! Softened cake with the squash. Just as good as carrot cake! Gluten-free too, no butter? Wow. Count me in for your next afternoon tea 😉
Johanna GGG says
looks scrumptious – I think butter often gives some of the gooiness of brownies but squash is a good way to keep it moist and tasty
The KitchenMaid says
Hmmmm, interesting – and much nicer than my recent WSC effort! Butterless brownies, whatever will they think of next!
Zoe says
Thanks for dropping by my blog. I’m happy to follow your blog for more of your great cooking ideas and hope to hear from you in the future 😀
Chocolate Here says
Oh squash and cake, really? Wow I must try this. I like the idea of hiding the white choc in the middle too!
figjamandlimecordial.com says
They look beautiful, Choc! I don’t think it’s possible to have too much leftover squash.. 🙂
The Caked Crusader says
Fantastic looking cake – I love the height of it and the way that the texture looks so fluffy. Unfortunately, squash really upsets me so I shall just have to admire it from afar!
Dom at Belleau Kitchen says
its almost healthy?!?!? that’s not right… however good it looks… I am most intrigued and more than prepared to try and make these… in the interest of science you understand!
Hannah says
Oh my, this looks *amazing*! Gluten-free, and I can make it dairy-free too by using my vegan white chocolate 🙂 Love the idea of sneaking squash into an almond cake. I’ll have to try this soon!
Catherine says
They look fabulous! I can just imagine biting into a chunk of white chocolate mmmmm! The squash makes it completely guilt free of course 🙂
Kath says
Ooh it looks really good, and it’s supposed to be healthy?? Is the squash the veggie’s equivalent of the everlasting turkey then? Those squashes look great too.
Chele says
Mmmmmmmmmm – white chocolate is never a bad thing! These look great, who ever would have thought there would be such a thing as butter-less brownies?? Looks fab as a cake ;0)