Butternut squash cake with maple whipped topping

Hello everybody!! The Fresh Pioneer is back and I have a sweet little something for your Thanksgiving week.

For once, an actual picture of the food I will be cooking and cyber serving. (See, I'm so smart I always post the first pic of something really pretty because that shows up on the link. Crazy like a fox, I am. If I posted a picture of the actual food no one would ever click.)

 So, first you need 4 cups of butternut squash, cooked and blended. (I'll pause while you get that done... *taps toes impatiently* Wait, you can buy them in little packages that go in the mircowave?? Huh.)

 Preheat the oven to 325F. Rub tummy and say , "This is going to be delicious!" Positive thinking matters.

Blend one cup of sugar, 1/4 cup of butter, 3 eggs, 3 tbs lemon juice and the 4 c of cooked squash together with ONE CUP of flour. Edna went to town with this. Squash was flying everywhere! But she was happy so I let her go...

 

 (Mmmmm. Edna says that butternut squash is VERY GOOD FOR US! Lots of Vitamin A and C and fiber. Of course, I think she meant it's really good before we put all that butter and sugar in, but we'll just pretend it's still going to make us super healthy!)

Next add in a small bowl ONE MORE CUP of flour plus :

2 1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ginger
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 allspice

Mix well and add into the main mixture. Pour into small ramekins (I love those things!) or a shallow baking dish.

 

Place the ramekins in one inch of water and bake for about 30 minutes. They seemed to take a long time to cook. Maybe I was hungry. Maybe it was all the small people clinging to my legs and pleading with their big, googly baby eyes for SQUASH CAKES.

So, finally they're done (the tops are cracked, which is what one recipe said, but even then they were coming out goopy when poked, so I gave them more time).

 

So, the original recipe said the topping was sabayon flavored with Jack Daniels, which had been left alone for three weeks with two vanilla beans 'infusing the flavor'.


Got all that???
So, I went to my local supermarket, paid $15 for two whole beans, bought some whiskey, plopped in the beans, and left it in the laundry room for three weeks...

 

 

(Stephen Colbert giving me the skeptical face.)

 

 Fine, I did no such thing. Honestly, I think that part of the recipe was a test to see who was paying attention.

So, heavy cream whipped by a strong man, while the bowl is held by a small boy. (How's that for specific??)

Add 2TBS sugar, 1TSP vanilla and 2 TPS maple flavoring.  One dash of cinnamon for pretty.

 

Here's Edna all cleaned up and enjoying her serving of squash cake. She asked for just a few bites because she's watching the sugar.

 

I think this was one of the best things to ever have emerged from my oven. The smell was amazing and the taste was perfectly light, not too gooey or heavy, and definitely not just pumpkin flavor. Even without the Jack Daniels-vanilla bean pod- sabayon, it was delicious.

 

 

 

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!