A moment of enlightenment remains an indelible memory, especially when it occurs in Paris. Ten years ago, a seemingly impossible cake recipe caught my eye as I leafed through the current Elle Magazine in a Montmartre tabac shop. Since when was a squash puree a main ingredient in a cake batter with diced apples piled on top? This had to be a printing error.
As a faithful adherent to Le Cordon Bleu techniques à la Julia Child, I took a limited view to recipe substitutions. Julia’s alterations went as far as replacing two tablespoons of butter with vegetable shortening in a pâte brisée pastry dough. She was simply swapping out one fat for another that is easier to handle although less tasty. Now, sixty years after the publication of Julia's first cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, I still cling to basic techniques rather than striking out on my own.
The cake I prepared from Elle recipe back in 2012 was a marvel. It had an amazing custard-like consistency and vegetal sweetness that the tart, still-crunchy apple bits on top complemented perfectly. One had to allow time to bake the squash and dice the apples, but adding the remaining ingredients was easy. Butternut Cake with Diced Apples soon became a staple in my fall cooking class repertoire. I have come to admire the way French women bake at home. Their tradition takes license with culinary doctrine to create more inventive desserts.
This year, for no apparent reason, I developed a serious craving for the comforting sensation of butternut squash baked in a cake. Small tweaks to the cake recipe itself resulted in plump, tender Butternut Pancakes to which I added a simple cranberry sauce, an even better complement than apples. Emboldened by this success, I improvised Butternut Cranberry Muffins by substituting butternut squash in an existing recipe for banana pancakes, adding pumpkin spices and folding dried cranberries into the batter. Voila!
I'm going to continue to riff on holiday home baking in an online cooking class on November 5. This Holiday Pie Update session will introduce ways change up traditional recipes for pumpkin pie, cheesecake and fruit tarts. Join us to brush up your skills and learn more!
