Here’s a typically seasonal cake with autumnal flavours: red kuri squash and pecan mini bundt cakes. It’s very soft, very indulgent and lightly spiced, as it contains a little cinnamon, ginger and gingerbread spices, and all of that goes wonderfully with red kuri squash and pecan.
I’m not in the habit of putting vegetables in my pastries, though. Here, I took the plunge to take part in our #cookandshootchallenge on Instagram. That’s what’s great about this kind of challenge: it lets us step out of our comfort zone and try things we might never have done otherwise. For this challenge, we had to use a vegetable of our choice. I chose red kuri squash, which is a fairly sweet squash and therefore perfectly suited to desserts (butternut would have done the job just as well).
It’s a recipe I discovered on the blog Lilie Bakery, which I slightly modified to make little trompe-l’œil pumpkins.
Ingredients & method
3 components · Full recipe
Red kuri squash and pecan cake
Ingredients
- 230 g (8.1 oz) red kuri squash purée
- 265 g (9.3 oz) flour
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 100 g (3.5 oz) eggs (about 2 eggs)
- 50 g (1.8 oz) coconut blossom sugar
- 100 g (3.5 oz) light brown sugar
- 100 g (3.5 oz) grapeseed oil
- 80 g (2.8 oz) water
- 80 g (2.8 oz) pecans
- 1½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp ground ginger
- ½ tsp gingerbread spice blend
- 1 pinch of salt
Method
1
Preheat the oven to 175°C / 350°F.
2
In a bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients: flour, bicarbonate of soda, spices and salt.
3
In another bowl, mix together the eggs, sugars, squash purée, water and oil.
4
Add the wet mixture to the dry ingredients, whisking until you get a smooth batter.
5
Finally, fold in the roughly chopped pecans and mix one last time.
6
Pour the batter into individual moulds, filling them three-quarters full, and bake for about 20 minutes. Wait a moment before carefully unmoulding. Leave to cool on a wire rack.
7
Fill the centre hole with a small piece of cake (you’ll need to sacrifice one…). Press down gently.
8
Attach the small stalks with white chocolate and place in the freezer. To make the red kuri squash purée, cut the squash in half and microwave for 6–8 minutes. Then simply scoop out the flesh and blitz it.
Chocolate coating
Ingredients
- 260 g (9.2 oz) Ivoire 35% Valrhona white chocolate
- 75 g (2.6 oz) cocoa butter
- 37 g (1.3 oz) grapeseed oil
- 1 tsp Norohy vanilla extract
- orange oil-based food colouring
Method
1
In a tall container, melt the white chocolate and cocoa butter together in the microwave.
2
Add the grapeseed oil, food colouring and vanilla extract, then blend for a few seconds with a hand blender, being careful not to incorporate air bubbles.
3
Leave to cool to 40°C / 104°F.
Decorating the red kuri squash and pecan mini bundt cakes
Ingredients
- a few Ivoire 35% Valrhona white chocolate discs
- green oil-based food colouring
Method
1
Skewer the cakes and dip them into the chocolate coating (I did 2 dips). Leave to set in the refrigerator.
2
Melt a few white chocolate discs and add a little green oil-based food colouring. Using a brush, paint the small stalk green for a more realistic effect. These mini bundt cakes can be kept at room temperature for 2–3 days (in an airtight container).
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