After making my Porotos Granados soup (see previous recipe) I was left with half a sad and lonely butternut squash in the fridge. What to do with it? Surely not another soup…. My attention was drawn to this recipe at the end of the River Cottage Veg everyday book, apparently one of Hugh’s favourites. I decided to try it. What appealed to me was the fact that it has no fat in it. YES, NO FAT! Can you believe it? Or more to the point: can a cake still taste decent without any fat in it? I was somewhat sceptical. Butter free experiments in the past hadn’t been all that successful but I have got to say I was impressed with this loaf. It was tasty and moist and it had a lovely yellowish tinge. Great with a cup of tea/coffee. I confess I did smear a little butter on my slice for added flavour but you don’t have to! Next time I will try making it using a pumpkin. It might work well even with grated carrots. One would need to experiment. By the way: it definitely tastes better the following day!
INGREDIENTS
200g light muscovado sugar
4 large eggs, separated
200g finely grated raw pumpkin or squash flesh
Finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
100g raisins
100g ground almonds
200g self-raising flour
Pinch of salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
Generous grating of fresh nutmeg
METHOD
Heat the oven to 170C/335F/gas mark 3 and line a 10cm x 20cm loaf tin with baking parchment. Use an electric whisk to beat the sugar and egg yolks for two to three minutes, until pale and creamy. Lightly stir in the pumpkin, lemon zest and juice, raisins and almonds. Combine the flour, salt and spices, sift these in, then fold them in. Beat the egg whites until they hold soft peaks. Beat a heaped tablespoonful of egg white into the batter to loosen it, then fold in the rest as gently as you can.
Tip into the prepared tin and level the top. Bake for about an hour, until a skewer comes out clean (I had to give it an extra 15 minutes, for example) . Leave to cool for 10 minutes in the tin, than transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before slicing.
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