On Cake

Ok. I know I said I was going to post the recipe and photos for my delicious romanesco cauliflower pasta, but I am a jerk and I forgot to do it, so for now, we're dealing with something much more important:

Cake.

I know that in the grand scheme of things, cake isn't as important as, say, bathing or taxes or laundry (which I should probably do today), but today cake is pretty important. 

For his really awesome anniversary present, I took Le Boyfriend to Bodies The Exhibition yesterday. It's certainly not for everyone, but I myself am a big fan of seeing how things work and I think that the chance to view people in a very stripped down (and really not terribly yucky) state is something not to miss out on, so off we went to peruse muscles and bones and organs and all manner of people parts. While standing in line for the touching part of the exhibit, Le Boyfriend told me that it was all me and that he'd not be touching ANYTHING. Imagine my surprise when, a moment later, I was standing there with a human liver in my hands, marveling at the size of the blood supply that it once harbored and I looked over to see Le Boyfriend cradling a human brain in his lovely hands. It was a bit surreal, as he was staunchly against even the tiniest bit of touching these things and then all of a sudden, he was saying, "Wow. WOW." I am quite proud of him. Such things are fascinating and humbling and I am really happy that he put himself out there like that. Again, it's certainly not everyone's cup of tea, but we were really in awe the whole time.

Anyway. DIGRESSIONS. I am so good at this. Have you noticed yet? It's a running theme with me. I begin talking about something like broken shoelaces and end up deeply entrenched in a conversation about the intricacies of social justice, without a discernible segue in sight. I pretend like it is a talent, when in reality it's a bit of a trainwreck. That being said: cake.

After parting ways with said lovely man last night, I headed home to cuddle my puppy, watch some really poorly made 1990's horror movies (Candyman, anyone?) and catch up on all things Internet. As I was watching that wretched movie (which I first saw in the theater when I was a freshman in high school with my friend Lauren), I caught up on my Livejournal friendslist (shut it. 75% of my AMAZING friends are with me because of my Feelings Journal). One of my favorite LJ communities is bakebakebake. There are gorgeous things posted there every day and that community really has made me want to become a more skilled baker and in a lot of senses, that has worked. Thanks, bakebakebakers! 

As I was skimming my friendslist, a bakebakebake post popped out at me. Pumpkin pie snickerdoodle bars? Are you serious?! After my brain registered a "HELL YES!", I informed Le Boyfriend that I was going to make these delicious-looking things RIGHT NOW. My only real issue is that I had no pumpkins of any kind and that the recipe looked like it would feed an army. I did, however, have a gorgeous acorn squash that I picked up at the farmer's market last week and I could certainly cut the recipe in half, so I set about it.

The end result? Decidedly not pumpkiny or in bar form, but I think I might even be happier with this:

After steaming my acorn squash to a mashably delicious consistency, I realized that I had more than the 3/4 cup that the halved recipe (the full version is after the link jump above for the post) called for. I didn't want to use a ton of butter, so I snagged he remainder of the nonfat sour cream out of the fridge left over from making Le Boyfriend's salad dressing and also decided to use my springform pan rather than a rectangular pan. 

Recipe after alterations:

Yield is 12-14 servings

Snickerdoodle layer

1.5 cups flour

1.5 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3/4c packed brown sugar

1/2 stick butter, softened

1/2 cup nonfat sour cream

1 egg, beaten and at room temperature

1 tbsp vanilla 

Pumpkin/Squash layer

2/3 cup flour

1/3 cup raw sugar

1/2 stick butter, softened

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1 egg, beaten and at room temperature

1 cup steamed acorn squash, mashed to a silky texture

Additional

2 tbsp white sugar mixed with 2 tbsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350. Place a square of waxed paper or parchment paper on the tray of a 10" springform pan, close the ring around it and trim off the excess. Very lightly grease and flour the paper and the sides of the pan. 

In a large bowl, prepare the snickerdoodle layer by whisking together the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Add butter and mix in with a wooden spoon until the mixture breaks down into marble-sized bits, then stir in the vanilla, egg and sour cream. The batter will be thick, but stir for a moment until it becomes a bit fluffy, then spread into the springform evenly. Tap the pan on the counter a few times to release any major air bubbles and then top with half of the cinnamon-sugar mixture.

In the same bowl, whisk all of the ingredients for the pumpkin/squash layer together. This batter will be much easier to pour and will be a bit thinner. Pour on top of the snickerdoodle layer and sprinkle the remainder of the cinnamon sugar on top.

Bake on the middle rack of the oven at 350 for one hour. The cake will have risen and the sugar coating on top will have formed a sugar crust. Turn the oven down to 325 and place the cake on the lowest rack of the oven for 15-20 minutes, or until a toothpick/cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool for 45 minutes before unringing the cake and slicing it.

At first, I was a litlte bit skeptical. The acorn squash doesn't have the same bright color that the pumpkin does, but it still turned out lovely.

The snickerdoodle layer is so delicious and dense and the sour cream makes it just the tiniest bit tangy without adding (more) fat to it. The squash layer is also really moist and dense and I think the acorn squash worked really well as a pumpkin substitution and I will likely use it again in this recipe. I will be handing some off to a neighbor and will try this again with sugar pumpkin puree soon to see which I like better, but I have a feeling that this will remain the winner. I think you should make some of this and then you should put it in your mouth and then you should tell me what you think of it.

Coffee-ish cake out of squash. Broken shoelaces to social justice. Same story, all the time. At least this result is delicious, right? Right.