This cake was inspired from when I was in Kyoto, admiring all of the autumn nature-themed artwork in several of the local museums there. I wanted to make this yellow-ish cake with pretty reds and oranges, indicative of autumnal colors, and flavors. And since I play Animal Crossing, I am fully aware that maple leaves are in season during November, so it just made sense to go with maple as one of the flavors in this cake. I also wanted to use pumpkins, since that is probably the poster child-ingredient for the season of fall, and I went with kabocha squash specifically, because I love the yellow-orange hue of the pumpkin-like squash itself. As another nod to my Japan trip being the inspiration, I used kinako powder, which is toasted soy bean flour, which has a nutty almost peanut butter-like flavor, in the cake. Originally, I was not going to go the route of a gluten-free cake, but I had read up on acorn flour/starch. Popularly used in Korean cooking to make jelly noodles, acorn starch has a malty, molasses-like flavor profile to it, and it really evokes the flavor of the holidays. So I decided, instead of going with just the kinako, to use acorn flour in my cake as well, to give the cake that robust, molasses-like flavor profile! In short, this cake has four main flavors, being pumpkin, maple, acorn, and kinako. All of which really embody the season and feel of autumn! Aesthetically I wanted this cake to be like a spiritual successor to my old Amber Sky Mirror Glaze Cake, using that same autumn leaf motif, but even going a few steps further with the really natural composition and coloration of the cake.

For the components, we have an acorn-kinako chiffon cake, maple-candied pumpkin, a maple-kinako French buttercream, and red acorn-maple tuiles. When it came to the ingredients, there I feel like maple might be the one people are the most familiar with. Maple syrup, or at least real maple syrup, has subtle earthy notes and a pleasant aroma to it. I love using maple in desserts, but I understand that real maple can be expensive, so you can sub it out with equal parts brown sugar with 1/4 tsp maple extract, or maple sugar! I also kept the price point of maple in mind, since it is a really pricy product, which is why I figured, rather than pouring out the maple poaching liquid I used for the pumpkin, I would rather recycle it into a bunch of the components, namely reducing it down into a soaking syrup for the chiffon cake and using the rest of it in the buttercream! The squash is being treated in a similar way to Mexican candied pumpkin(calabaza en tacha), in that it is being slowly braised in a dark, rich syrup. I did not use cinnamon in this recipe, just because cinnamon isn’t used commonly in Japanese desserts, and I wanted to keep this cake clean and true to that. Acorn flour/starch might be the one people are the least familiar with, but just treat it like flour, minus the gluten. I used xanthan gum as well as a more generous amount of brown butter compared to my usual chiffon cakes to help the cakes stay soft and not-dry. I opted to naturally dye my tuiles with beet powder, but you can also just use food coloring too. When it came to the tuiles, I used the same maple leaf stencil I used to spray my Maple langue de chaats, but you can use whichever stencils you can get ahold us – in the past, I literally would cut out leaf shape holes in card stock and just used that. The pepitas, or pumpkin seeds, are purely there for garnish, and you can 100% omit those if you want! I only have them handy in my pantry since I make lots of mole at home.

For the maple-candied pumpkin:
about 1/2 pound of peeled and diced butternut or kabocha squash
water
a pinch of salt
1/4 cup dark brown sugar or 2oz black rock sugar
2oz maple syrup

In a pot, add in all of your ingredients, placing in just enough water to just submerge the squash. Place a lid on the pot, and bring to a simmer for at least 20 minutes. Then remove the lid and continue to reduce the liquid by about half, until it forms a thick syrup that coats each piece of the pumpkin. Store the pumpkin and the syrup in an airtight container, but reserve 1oz of the liquid/syrup for the cake soak, and the rest of the syrup will go into your French buttercream!

For the acorn-kinako chiffon cake:
4 egg whites
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 egg yolks
1/4 cup kinako powder
1/2 cup acorn flour
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1 stick unsalted butter, browned
a pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
In a bowl, whip the egg whites and sugar to stiff peaks. In another bowl, mix the other ingredients together. Fold into that bowl the whipped egg whites to form your batter. Pour the batter into a lined quarter sheet tray, and spread into a thin, even layer. Bake at 350 degrees F for 18 minutes. Then allow the cake to cool before cutting out 2 6-inch rounds and form a third using the scraps.

For the soak:
3/4 cups milk
1oz pumpkin poaching liquid
a pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla extract

Mix together to form your soak. Generously soak all of your layers with the mixture, and then transfer them to the freezer, keeping them chilled for at least 1 hour – the colder the layers, the better they will be to assemble with!

For the maple French buttercream:
2oz reserved poaching liquid/syrup(or whatever is left of it!)
.5oz apple brandy or bourbon*
a pinch of salt
2 egg yolks
1/4 cup kinako powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 sticks unsalted butter, diced and at room temperature

In a pot, heat up the poaching syrup, alcohol, and salt. Bring to a boil before pouring into a mixing bowl containing your egg yolks and kinako. Whisk until the egg yolks and syrup are fully combined, and then slowly mix in the butter until that is fully incorporated as well.

For initial assembly:
Start with one of your two normal rounds of cake, then pipe onto that about 2oz of the buttercream. Press in about 40% of the cubes of the candied pumpkin. Then repeat with the next layer of the cake, using the scrap layer for the middle. Place on the top layer, and spread a thin layer of the buttercream around the exterior of the cake – this will be a crumb coat to seal the cake into the frosting. Transfer the cake to the freezer for at least 1 hour.

For the red acorn “maple leaf” tuiles:
1/2 tsp egg white powder
1oz maple syrup
1g vanilla extract
a pinch of salt
1 tbsp brown butter or canola oil
2 tbsp acorn flour
1/4 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp red beet powder

In a bowl, mix everything together to form your tuile batter. Spread the batter using a leaf stencil, onto a parchment-lined half sheet tray, repeating this step until you have used up all of the batter. Then bake the tuiles at 325 degrees F for 7 minutes. Store the tuiles in an airtight container.

For garnish:
Kinako Powder
Pepitas

Spread a more generous layer of buttercream around your cake, just to cover up the crumb coat. Use a combination of an offset spatula and a bench scraper to do so. Dust the sides of the cake with kinako powder. Freeze the cake for another hour again, and then transfer to your desired serving surface. Dust the cake with kainko powder, then garnish the top with pipings of your remaining buttercream, the remaining cubes of candied pumpkin, pepitas, and your tuiles to finish. Witht he tuiles, be sure to garnish the sides of the cake as well.