Acorn Squash Cake

10 things on my mind this week:

1. Soup week in culinary school.
2. My interview with Crumbs Bake Shop.
3. Three losses in a row!!! WTF?
4. What to make with my tupperware of Espagnole sauce.
5. Apple, bacon and cheddar pizza.  (Soooo delicious, I will share my recipe soon.)
6. Getting out of the city to see some Fall foliage.
7. Coming up with a Halloween costume and buying lots of candy.
8. Why does Motu hate tape measurers?
9. Beans and Ramen.
10. What to make next out of Country Wisdom and Know How, because this Acorn Squash Cake was incredibly simple and satisfying.

Last week in school we learned about Mother Sauces.  They are Béchamel, Hollandaise, Espagnole, Velouté and Tomato.  They were all delicious and I learned some really great flavor tricks.  My favorite was to  simmer the milk for Bechamel with an onion piquet (onion, bay leaves and cloves).  The layer of flavor this added made the sauce extra special.  Let me know if anyone is interested in other sauce secrets.

Acorn Squash Cake

adapted from Country Wisdom and Know How

Cake:

2 eggs
3/4 cup oil
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup grated raw acorn squash (1/2 a squash for me)
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour (or all purpose flour)
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
4 oz canned crushed pineapple, drained
1/4 cup chopped pecans

Frosting:

1/4 cup butter, softened
4 oz cream cheese, softened
1-2 cups confectioners sugar
1-2 tablespoons honey (to taste)
Pecan pieces for decorating

1. Preheat oven to 350° F and grease and flour an 8×8 square cake pan.
2. Put eggs, oil. honey, and sugar in a blender (make sure sugar is last ingredient added), and blend until smooth.  Add grated squash a little at a time blending until smooth after each addition.  Pour into large mixing bowl.
3. Stir the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl and add to the wet ingredients.  Stir gently until just mixed.
4. Fold in the pineapple and pecans.
5. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 30-40 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.
6. Let cool on wire rack for 15-20 minutes (until warm, not hot).  Turn out onto rack and cool completely.
7. When cake is cooled, put butter and cream cheese in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with whisk attachment.  Beat until combined and creamy.  Add sugar until desired consistency is reached.  Drizzle in honey and beat until combined and fluffy. Sorry I didn’t measure my sugar but cream cheese frosting is so easy I just add the sugar until it is thick and sweet enough.
8. Spread frosting on top of cake letting it go over the edges a little.  Decorate with pecan pieces if you like.

Note: This cake was originally for a 9 x 13 inch pan and the amounts of ingredients actually work better for this size if you want to double my version.  I just don’t like having that much cake in the house for two people.

Pumpkin Coffee Cake

I made it through my first week of culinary school!  It wasn’t as hard as I expected, but I think that’s because we only had to make two recipes over two days.  There are going to be weeks when we make more than a dozen.  We started with the basics: white stock and brown stock.  But now that we have those richly flavored bases in the freezer, we can make our sauces, mashed potatoes and grains taste amazing.

My chef for this class is great.  He has tons of energy, which really helps us get moving and excited about cooking at 7:15 in the morning.  He’s also very enthusiastic about using items from the “use me” cart in the store room.  This meant that even though we were only supposed to make stocks last week (and therefore have nothing to eat at the end of class), we ended up making fried chicken, spinach salad, biscuits and mashed potatoes and gravy!

At the end of the week I have Management class.  It was pretty weird because I was the only student in class that day.  Everyone else was at the freshmen seminar that I was exempt from.  It turned out to be really fun because I got to know the chef instructor, and she had some great job hunting tips for me.

For now though, I’m going to take advantage of my afternoons off and keep baking delicious fall treats like this pumpkin coffee cake.  I went through two versions of this because I had something very specific in mind, and the first version just didn’t deliver.  It was mushy and tasted like pumpkin baby food.

This version that I came up with is just right.  The streusel topping is sweet and crunchy and the pumpkin swirls are moist.  I like a strong spice flavor in my pumpkin dessert, so I made sure to have a heavy hand with the ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg.

based on the Cardamom Coffee Cake from Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

Streusel

1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup chopped pecans
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
4 tablespoons butter, cut into 8 pieces at room temperature

Cake

2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup sour cream
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
2/3 cup canned pumpkin
1/4 cup chopped pecans

1. Preheat oven to 400° F.  Butter an 8-inch square baking pan, dust with flour, and tap out excess.
2. For the crumbs: Put all ingredients except the butter in a bowl and toss them together with a fork. Add the butter and using your fingers or the fork, mix everything together until you’ve got different-size crumbs. Put crumbs in refrigerator until ready to use.
3. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and sugar in a large bowl.
4. Mix the butter, eggs, milk, sour cream and vanilla in another bowl and whisk them to blend.
5. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry and stir until just moistened.
6. Transfer half of the batter back to the wet ingredient bowl and gently mix in the pumpkin and pecans.
7. Scrape some of the plain batter into the pan. Plop spoonfuls of pumpkin batter, then spoonfuls of the rest of the plain batter on top. Stir and swirl the batters just a little to even out the surface.
8. Top with a thick, even layer of crumbs. Bake for 30-45 minutes until the cake has risen, the crumbs are golden and a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.

Lemon Rosemary Olive Oil Cake

Yesterday I spent 9 hours waiting in lines and sitting in an auditorium, but I loved every minute of it.  I was at my orientation for culinary school!  Ok, I was lying when I said I loved it.  It was pretty unorganized and boring.  BUT I’m starting class on Monday, and if I had to wait in lines to get my student ID and supply kit then so be it.

I was also excited about getting my uniform, but they were out of my size when I finally got to the front of that particular line.  During the announcements for culinary students they seemed very strict about having your complete uniform everyday you come to class, so I’m pretty nervous about showing up the first day in just a white shirt and black pants.  I hope there are other students who also didn’t receive their chef coats and checkered pants.

I got my official schedule and on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays I have Foundations and Fundamentals of Classical Techniques.

Here is the description:

“The fundamental concepts, skills, and techniques involved in basic cookery are covered in this course. Special emphasis is given to the study of ingredients and cooking theories. Lectures teach organization skills in the kitchen and work coordination. The concepts and techniques of stocks, soups, sauces, vegetable cookery, starch cookery, meat, seafood, and poultry are covered. Emphasis is given to basic cooking techniques such as sautéing, roasting, poaching, braising, and frying.”

The knife kit I received is way more than just knives.  There are pastry tips, a crazy awesome whisk and a ninja sword.  The ninja sword is actually a sashimi knife, but I’ll continue to think of it as my ninja sword.

There is also this:

It’s a model for different types of knife cuts, and it was definitely the most surprising thing I received.

I’m so happy that I’m finally starting school, but I have a major case of stomach butterflies.  I think another slice of this Lemon Rosemary Olive Oil Cake should cure those.  It feels much lighter than a traditional bundt cake because of the olive oil (there is no butter in it), and tastes perfectly fresh because of the lemon and herb flavors.  I love how the batter is flecked with green and yellow bits.

I decided to make this cake because whenever I was out walking I noticed these huge bushes of rosemary in people’s yards and sometimes the bushes were on the other side of the sidewalk in “public” space.  I figured no one would notice if I took a few sprigs.  This cake seemed like a sweet way to use those pilfered herbs.

I doubled the glaze the recipe calls for because I love glazed cakes.  Also, I would’ve made it a little thicker because too much ended up on the platter instead of on the cake.

The recipe is from a Cooking Light magazine I have and since it is online, I will just link to it for you.