Do you like carrot cake? I do. If you like it as well, you will definitely love these butternut squash muffins. They are sweet, moist and a perfect treat on a snowy day. Yes, it’s snowing here. Our street was all white this morning. I hope that it will last and that the snow won’t turn into brown mud in the afternoon. Unfortunately snow is not always nice in the city.

I have taken two days off work, which puts me into a total Christmas mood. This afternoon I will defintely start baking Christmas cookies.

I love how our weekly vegetable delivery has turned all winterly: brussels sprouts, cabbage and SQUASH! I have turned into a total squash lover lately. My favourites include these muffins, squash soup with coconut milk and warm squash and kale salad with nuts. Things on my list: butternut burritos and butternut pasta.

Look at the beautiful colour of this butternut!

I have rediscovered my cookbook “jamie at home” by Jamie Oliver. All the recipes are ordered by seasons. Great book with beautiful photography.

Recipe from the book “jamie at home” by Jamie Oliver

What you need for 12 muffins:

400g butternut squash, skin on and finely chopped (blender)

350g brown sugar

4 eggs

300g wholemeal flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 handful of chopped walnuts

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

175 ml extra virgin olive oil

For the frosting:

orange zest from one orange

lemon zest from one lemon

juice from 1/2 lemon

100g sour cream

200g tablespoons icing sugar

1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise and vanilla extract scraped out

For decoration and final twist: sea salt, lavender flowers or rose petals

Steps:

Preheat oven to 180°C

Prepare a muffin tin with paper cups

In a large bowl, whisk together all the muffin ingredients

Fill the muffin cups with the mixture

Put in the oven for about 25 minutes

Allow the muffins to cool down

Meanwhile whisk together all the ingredients for the icing

You might need to adjust the amount of lemon juice/icing sugar for a perfect icing texture

Scoop the icing on the muffins

For a final twist, sprinkle some sea salt and flower petals on top