butternut squash muffins with a frosty top

servings
12

method

My kids love these squash muffins. They taste a bit like carrot cake, as the two vegetables are very similar – I’ve simply swapped carrots for squash. Both of them are wonderful carriers of flavors like cinnamon, cloves and vanilla. The skin of a butternut squash goes deliciously chewy and soft when cooked, so there’s no need to peel it off. Give these little cakes a go – they’re a perfect naughty-but-nice treat. And a great way of getting your kids to eat squash!

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line your muffin tins with paper cups.

Whiz the squash in a food processor until finely chopped. Add the sugar, and crack in the eggs. Add a pinch of salt, the flour, baking powder, walnuts, cinnamon and olive oil and whiz together until well beaten. You may need to pause the machine at some point to scrape the mix down the sides with a rubber spatula. Try not to overdo it with the mixing – you want to just combine everything and no more.

Fill the paper cups with the cake mixture. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes. Check to see whether they are cooked properly by sticking a wooden skewer or a knife right into one of the cakes – if it comes out clean, they’re done. If it’s a bit sticky, pop them back into the oven for a little longer. Remove from the oven and leave the cakes to cool on a wire rack.

As soon as the muffins are in the oven, make your runny frosted topping. Place most of the clementine zest, all the lemon zest and the lemon juice in a bowl. Add the sour cream, icing sugar and vanilla seeds and mix well. Taste and have a think about it – adjust the amount of lemon juice or icing sugar to balance the sweet and sour. Put into the fridge until your cakes have cooled down, then spoon the topping onto the cakes.

Serve on a lovely plate (on a cake stand if you’re feeling elegant, or on a rustic slab if you’re more of a hunter-gatherer type!), with the rest of the clementine zest sprinkled over. For an interesting flavor and look, a few dried lavender flowers or rose petals are fantastic.

Recipe from jamie at home
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ingredients

• 14 ounces butternut
squash, skin on, deseeded
and roughly chopped
• 2¼ cups light soft
brown sugar
• 4 large free-range
or organic eggs
• sea salt
• 2½ cups flour, unsifted
• 2 heaped teaspoons
baking powder
• a handful of walnuts
• 1 teaspoon ground
cinnamon
• ¾ cup extra virgin olive oil

for the frosted
cream topping:
• zest of 1 clementine
• zest of 1 lemon and
• juice of ½ a lemon
• ½ cup sour cream
• 2 heaped tablespoons
icing sugar, sifted
• optional: lavender
flowers or rose petals
• 1 vanilla bean, split
lengthwise and
seeds scraped out

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tried this recipe or a similar one? share your tips...

1. by Dina on Wed 12 Oct 2011 @ 22:30

These were awesome! I tweaked the recipe a bit by using whole wheat flour (2 1/4 c) and 3/4 c honey and 3/4 c sure cane sugar in place of the brown sugar. I also exchanged the icing sugar with pure maple syrup. Yum! Still moist and delicious.

2. by Connie on Mon 10 Oct 2011 @ 13:29

this looks wonderful! love the flowers for "sprinkles" instead of yucky store bought, artificially colored ones.

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