Let's bake a Butternut Squash Cake

What a weekend feels like, finally.

Finally, I can feel the weekend approaching again. For years, first working on my own, then working with Tommaso on our shared family project, I could not discern the weekend from the working days. For us, it was a continuum of days that looked all the same, all equally intense, exciting, tiring, focused on to-do lists and deadlines.

Then the pandemic hit the world and our routine. Then, one year ago, a baby Livia turned our life upside down. Now that she goes to nursery school from Monday to Friday, I can finally understand the joys of the weekends.

I’m more tired than ever on a Friday night, but at the same time, I feel a warm sense of wellbeing permeating my body while I stretch on the sofa after dinner, given by the awareness that, finally, tomorrow is the weekend.

Of course, Livia doesn’t care about it. Her inner alarm clock is set at 6 am sharp, but we always try to convince her to cuddle a little bit more in bed, just until she drags me in the kitchen to have her bottle of milk.

The weekend is always so short.

I would love to pack in 48 hours everything I silently leave for the weekend during the week as a promise of future happiness.

• A walk to soak up the Autumn colours - and it would be lovely this time to reach the wood to cut a few branches with red and orange berries to decorate the hallway.

• Curling up on my yellow armchair with a new cookbook - I bought two new cookbooks that are calling me right now from the bookshelf, I can’t wait to delve into their atmosphere and recipes.

• Cleaning up and tidying the house. I mean, thoroughly. I find it relaxing, it is a way to practise mindfulness for me, just like cooking. Of course, we try to keep our house as clean as we can possibly do during the week, living in the countryside with two dogs and a one-year-old baby. But during the week, I keep mental notes of books I would love to move, of packets and jars I need to check in the pantry, of winter scarves and hats I have to move downstairs, of house plants I need to repot, or pieces of furniture I desperately want to rearrange. The weekend is always the moment when I hope I finally have time to tackle this list.

• Going out for lunch, or even just for a coffee, to see friends. I ignored this pull for almost two years, now I am as excited as a teenager at her first date when we plan a dinner in a local pizzeria with friends or a stroll in town to have a coffee and buy Livia a new coat for winter. I choose what to wear. I put on some makeup, and I tell Livia everything we will do and see and taste, as it was a grand adventure in the Caribbean seas. And it does feel like a grand adventure, everything is brand new and exciting. I treasure this sense of marvel and gratitude the pandemic and a new baby gave us.

• Baking a cake for the upcoming week. A cake on the kitchen counter creates a sense of cosiness and home immediately. I choose cakes with seasonal ingredients to ground myself and the future breakfasts in the present.

As it often happens, I can accomplish just a fraction of everything I had planned, but most of the time, the cake is there, waiting for us, on a Monday morning.

How do you live the weekend? Is there something you are excited to do? Cleaning your house or just sleeping in do count! Let me know in the comments or hit reply!

Butternut squash cake

Wherever you may stir up the ingredients, or grease a cake pan, choose the flavours and bake a cake that is home, your home, at least for those moments when the cake bakes in the oven and the good smell of butter and sugar lingers in the kitchen. This butternut squash cake, made for the first time 8 years ago for a magazine I was working for, reminds me of the good smell of home, of a welcoming kitchen, of a quiet breakfast at the kitchen table.

Since then, I have baked the cake so many times, fascinated by the moist texture given by the butternut squash pureed with yoghurt. Just like a carrot cake, it stays fresh for days, making it the perfect breakfast cake. The butternut squash is warmed by a teaspoon of grated nutmeg, a spice that goes perfectly with a cup of milk or black tea.

Read the recipe on the blog.

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Variations.

Instead of blending the raw butternut squash with yoghurt, this time I first baked the squash (as instructed here, but keeping the squash cut side down, without any dressing), then pureed the baked pulp with yoghurt. The cake came out incredibly smooth, aromatic, with a nutty, caramel note.

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If you decide to participate in the weekend cooking project, share the results with us on social media by using the hashtag #myseasonaltable and tagging @julskitchen on Instagram.

If you have questions about the ingredients or the recipe, if you have a special request for one of the following cooking projects, or want to have a chat, reply to this email.

More recipes with butternut squash

• Butternut squash savoury strudel. The purpose of savoury pies is to upcycle whatever is left at the bottom of the fridge, or pantry, and give it a new life.

• Butternut squash risotto. This is a simple pumpkin risotto, but if done well, it is one of the most comforting dishes you can imagine, it hugs you from the inside, it is creamy and delicate.

• Butternut squash savoury pie. As my mum’s classic potato cheese savoury pie, but more autumnal, rich and creamy thanks to oven-roasted butternut squash, butter and Parmigiano Reggiano.

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