Spaghetti Squash Spice Cake

We finally got a spaghetti squash out of our garden this year. One mighty spaghetti squash. This might not seem like any big deal, but we’ve NEVER gotten a squash, zucchini, eggplant or pumpkin to grow AT ALL in our very much loved and well taken care of garden plot. We get gorgeous, huge, lush, green plants… then nothing. And before you offer all of your great advice, we’ve already tried EVERYTHING (additions to the soil, tests, powdered sugar, epson salts, more sun, less sun, more water, less water… nothing helps. Basically it’s a miracle that we got a squash at all.

So we had to honor this beautiful squash properly with, what else… CAKE. Yes. Squash cake. It’ll make you a believer, for sure. I make super easy chocolate pumpkin muffins from cake mix and pumpkin puree so I went with that idea for this recipe. Lilly thought this sounded gross until I reminded her that people use zucchini and carrots in baking all the time! All we had to do was use spaghetti squash in place of zucchini or carrots.

Ingredients:

1 Boxed Spice Cake Mix

2 eggs

1/3 cup coconut oil, melted

1 tsp. good vanilla extract

1/2 of one large spaghetti squash, cooked and shredded*

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Mix all ingredients together in a mixing bowl. Spray a 9″x13″ glass baking dish with cooking spray then pour batter into dish. Bake for 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool completely. Frost with buttercream.

Buttercream Frosting:

2 sticks salted butter

1 stick crisco

1 tsp. salt

2 tsp. vanilla extract or seeds from one vanilla bean pod

2lbs. powdered sugar

4-8 tablespoons of water depending on consistency

Cream together butter and crisco using electric beaters. Add salt and vanilla extract. Add powdered sugar slowly, adding water by the tablespoonful if icing becomes too thick to mix.

*To cook spaghetti squash: pierce all over with a fork. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Remove from over and carefully slice off top and bottom ends. Be careful because the squash is HOT and holds in a ton of steam. Stand the squash on it’s end and cut it in half lengthwise. Hold the squash in a potholder-covered hand and scoop out the seeds. Then place the squash halves cut side down in a glass baking dish. Add 1/2 inch or so of water and cover tightly with foil. Bake again at 375 for 30-50 minutes or until a fork slides easily into the flesh and you can easily shred the “noodle like” flesh on the inside. Let cool completely before adding to the cake batter.