How To Make Applesauce Cake
Mmmm…Applesauce cake! I have the impression that applesauce cake was born out of our history when we just hated fat. The whole premise of using applesauce in baking was to make moist baked goods without the use of fats like oil or butter. Nowadays, there is much debate about fat, but it is generally accepted that good fats (those liquid at room temperature) are ok but should be eaten with total calories in mind while saturated fats (those solid at room temperature) are not good and should be limited. I admit that I am not much of a fat phobe (saturated fat being the exception), but do watch my calorie intake. My applesauce cake wasn’t born of this fat phobic era as it is full of butter. Sure, its moist, too. It has applesauce in it!
How To Make Applesauce Cake – The Applesauce
The applesauce does make the applesauce cake. I like to make my applesauce homemade, but store bought is fine. I just can’t seem to find a chunky applesauce I like from the store, so homemade it is. An applesauce cake is made better with chunky applesauce. Nothing like biting into delicious apples when eating applesauce cake. BTW, I also like choosing my own apples for applesauce – galas are my go to apple.
How To Make Applesauce Cake – The Cake
The cake part is rather straight forward. There is one twist, though. The butter I mentioned in the beginning is cut into the flour. I like to do this as I think it makes the cake extra tender and a bit more dense. I don’t believe in a light and fluffy applesauce cake. I think it should be dense and moist. After the cutting of the butter into the flour, the rest of the dry ingredients – sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, baking powder and soda – can be mixed right in with a fork. If you didn’t want to cut the butter into the flour, it can be melted and used as a wet ingredient.
The wet ingredients are the eggs, milk, and the applesauce, plus vanilla. Simple! All of this gets mixed up in a bowl and added to the dry ingredients. Since homemade applesauce can vary in liquid-ness, a little less or a little more milk can be used. The basic idea is to have a mixture that is a reasonably thick batter. If the applesauce is runny, less milk and vice versa. If the batter is a little more wet, it does not matter that much, but it will increase the cooking time.
How To Make Applesauce Cake – The Frosting
Back to the lack of fat phobia, I like an applesauce cake with a frosting. I debated the use of a streusel topping, like that on a coffee cake, but I felt a cream cheese frosting would be better. Next time I will try the streusel topping. A cream cheese frosting with a little cinnamon and vanilla is a hit on the cake. That tanginess brings out the flavor of the cake and adds a bunch more moistness to the whole experience. It is just delicious!
The ‘How To Make Applesauce Cake’ video is below. It shows you all the that is needed to make a great applesauce cake. The full ‘How To Make Applesauce Cake’ recipe is below.
- 2 1/2 cups of flour
- 1 stick of cold butter
- 2 teaspoons of baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 cup of sugar
- 1 cup of brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon of ground clove
- 2 eggs
- 2 cups of apple sauce
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla
- 6 ounces of cream cheese
- 2 tablespoons of butter
- 1/4 cup of powdered sugar
- 1/2 tsp of cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Butter and flour a 9 inch spring form pan.
- Place the flour in a large bowl. Cube the cold butter. Cut the cubed butter into the flour until the mixture looks like sand.
- Using a fork, mix in the rest of the dry ingredients. Mix well making sure all the dry ingredients are incorporated.
- In a medium bowl, using a fork, mix all the wet ingredients together.
- Make a well in the dry ingredients. Pour in the wet ingredients. Stir well with a fork until everything is incorporated and moistened. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
- Bake the cake for about an hour to an hour and 15 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
- Place all the ingredients into a medium bowl and mix with a whisk or hand mixer.
- Let the cake cool completely. Frost the cake with the frosting.
- Serve immediately.
I hope you enjoy!
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How do you make applesauce cake? Is your applesauce homemade? Let us know in the comments or on Facebook.
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Sounds great….but you have 2 tsp of baking soda followed by 1/2 tsp baking soda in the recipe. I’m thinking its 1/2 tsp baking POWDER instead.
Hi Kathy,
It is 2 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp soda. Thanks for catching it!
BR
Matthew