Monday, June 21, 2010

Applesauce Spice Cake

APPLESAUCE SPICE CAKE

Growing up I didn't like icing, but that didn't stop me from loving cakes. When my birthday rolled around, I would always ask my mom to make one of my three favorites: cinnamon coffee cake, chocolate pound cake, or this applesauce spice cake. In recent years I have made it myself several times and gotten rave reviews from The Gastronomer. Thus it seemed like the perfect treat to bake for this past weekend's Eat My Blog charity bake sale. I have to admit that it didn't sell terribly well in the early stages of the bake sale, while competing with such visually arresting treats as Sleeping Baby Cupcakes and Peach Pie Lollipops, but I'd like to think that those who gave my cake a chance were pleased with their purchase. In any case, the bake sale was a tremendous success, raising over $5,400 for the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, and The Gastronomer and I brought home a dazzling selection of treats baked by LA food bloggers and local restaurants.

The original recipe was called "Grandma Bess's Applesauce Cake", I believe. My mom found it in Joy of Cooking, or a similar classic cookbook.
  • 3 1/2 cups cake flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 2 teaspoons allspice
  • 2 teaspoons nutmeg
  • 1/2 teaspoon cloves
  • 1 cup butter
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 2 cups applesauce
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease and flour a tube or bundt pan. Sift together twice flour, soda, salt, and spices. In a large bowl, cream butter. Add sugar gradually and cream well. Add beaten eggs; mix well. Add flour mixture alternately with applesauce. Pour into pan and bake for about 1 hour 15 minutes, on until a tester comes out clean. Allow to cool a little before removing from pan.

Yield: ~16 servings
Estimated Start-to-Finish Time: Not given
Actual Start-to-Finish Time: 2 hours

5 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing one of your favorite cakes with the Eat My Blog community. We salute you, Frosting Hater! XO!

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  2. My husband hates frosting too! Well he hates heavy frosting specifically. This cake looks great! I'll have to add chunks of cooked apple once October rolls around!

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  3. Dietplaid - There's a similar recipe on gastronomyblog that includes apple chunks:

    http://gastronomyblog.com/2009/08/08/apple-spice-cake/

    I like the variety of spices in this one, but definitely check that out if you need further inspiration.

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  4. Oh cool! I will have to do a blend of the two then! Or I'll just make both :)

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  5. I have made this for decades and I love it.i usually double the recipe and use a bunt pan. I also use the base recipe to make a pumpkin spice variety. I sub pumpkin puree for applesauce. I use the full amount of sugar which I don't usually do with apples and I use pumpkin spice for the flavor. I always increase by a least 2x the spice. This is a thick batter so I might also add some liquid to give the batter the right feel since applesauce is juicier than pumpkin. I do this because I hate oil based cakes. This recipe has a lovely butter base. I can either glaze or ice it or its great plain. This is my son's yearly birthday cake and for that I do a cream cheese frosting with nutmeg and tiny slash of bourbon. The other Joy of Cooking apple cake is the apple spice that has chunks of fresh apple (not ) even peeled and no eggs. I add wheat germ to that one. So moist and delicious. I used these both when I catered.

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