RSBC Week 2: Gluten and Dairy Free Acorn Squash Cupcakes with Brown Sugar Frosting

It's RSBC Week 2 (Run Swim Bike Cook), and I've puzzled over what I should make for squash in dessert. You will recall the Gluten Free White Bean Pancakes from last week, and everyone else's entries are summarized in Last week's roundup of beans on Balance.

If I remember right about what was going on last year (we were making Crispy Meditteranean Polenta with Kale), I'm nearly certain I got sick at some point during RSBC - possibly even the second week? Well, it's happened again - I got my yearly sickness. I'm going to graciously thank my coworkers who still came to work with hacking coughs, although I have yet to reach the hacking cough stage (and I hope I don't!) I'm just at the horrible body aches with sore throat stage. And it's bad.

Still, I managed to make something squashy and sweet for dessert. The competition was for butternut squash, which I slightly modified and used an acorn squash I had hanging around. Winter squash is great in that it lasts all winter - so the squash that came in my November co-op order are quietly sitting in a bucket, waiting to be made into something more glorious and less caked in dirt.

I wanted to use as much of the squash as possible, not just a tiny bit. Especially since squash by itself is rather flavorless but also low fat, moist, and very nutritious, I figured it could improve the texture of my baked good. I came across a recipe for Butternut Squash Layer Cake, and decided that this called for cupcakes. I ended up with a delicious version of Acorn Squash Cupcakes with Brown Sugar Frosting. And the whole business is dairy free!

The cupcakes are light, moist, and taste like autumn with the aromatic cinnamon and cloves. The frosting is light and glossy, holds its shape incredibly well, and has a little salty bite to cut the sweet.

Gluten and Dairy Free Acorn Squash Cupcakes
Recipe by GlutenFreeinSLC, adapted loosely from Butternut Squash Layer Cake
Makes 18 cupcakes

1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs

2 cups mashed, cooked acorn squash
1/4 cup hemp milk, or more if needed

1/2 cup sorghum flour
1/2 cup sweet rice flour
1/2 cup tapioca starch
1/2 cup certified gluten free oat flour
1/2 cup white bean flour
1 1/2 teaspoons xanthan gum
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cloves

Cream together shortening and sugars in a bowl. Add each egg, one by one, and continuing mixing until completely incorporated. In a food processor, mix the baked squash with the hemp milk, in order to be sure that the squash will not be stringy. No one wants stringy cupcakes! Once the squash is pureed well, stir it into the shortening and sugar mixture.

In a separate bowl, combine flours, xanthan gum, baking powder and soda, salt, and spices. With a whisk, blend them until they become one flour.

Fold flour mixture into the squash mixture until completely combined. If needed, add a little extra hemp milk, until the batter is a very thick cake batter.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and line muffin pan with cupcake liners. Divide batter into cups, and bake for about 20 minutes, or until they are firm, but still give. They should be lightly brown on top. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.

Brown Sugar Frosting

1 cup packed brown sugar
2 egg whites
1/4 cup water
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Have your stand mixer ready, but set aside. Combine brown sugar, egg whites, water, cream of tartar and salt in a saucepan on the stove. Over low to medium heat, whisk constantly until the mixture reaches 160 degrees. While you whisk, it will be light brown and foamy, and smell delicious like caramel. When it has reached the temperature, pour into the bowl of the stand mixer and beat on high until stiff peaks form (peaks that hold their shape for extended amounts of time). Frost cooled cupcakes. The frosting is best on the day it's made, although it will last several more.

This week I finished 12.5 miles of running before I was sitting, mid-Valentines date playing a game of Dominion (and losing), when I realized that I was about to be very sick. That itchy throat just got worse as the game went along, and by this morning, there was no question that I had another date scheduled with a box of Puffs Plus Lotion and a nap.