Archive Recipe: Applesauce Cake

 

One more apple recipe, please. This cake is sort of a re-run since it’s a simple variation on this cake. When I made that cake as a vehicle for this pumpkin applesauce, I wanted to prove to myself that it would be just as good as a simple applesauce cake and/or a simple pumpkin cake. Um, that original cake happened in 2011. Two thousand freakin’ eleven! That was three years ago! How is it possible that I went without making a simple applesauce cake for three years?

Well, now, with more than enough lovely homemade applesauce on hand, I had no excuses. This is, of course a good cake. Simple and delicious. Because the applesauce adds subtle flavor, I can taste the whole wheat in the whole wheat pastry flour I use to make this a little less, oh, I don’t know, junk food. I’m sure this would be good with all all-purpose flour if you prefer.

In addition to using un-pumpkined applesauce, I also reduced the pumpkin pie spice in my original test to mere cinnamon. Apples and cinnamon. Come on. Horse and carriage, here. I think you could add some things to this cake, like chopped apples, pecans or walnuts, or raisins, but if I went that route, I would definitely use a larger baking pan (say, a 9-inch square). As it is, the applesauce cake fills an entire 8-inch pan as it bakes.

While you could fiddle with streusels or drizzles or icings to top this cake, I really love the simple cream cheese frosting. I could eat it with a spoon all by itself. And since I’ve been stuffing apples into baked goods, I should probably eat a few apples all by themselves, too. I know there are all kinds of them out there among those pumpkins and Brussels sprouts.

Applesauce Cake with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
Adapted from smitten kitchen

I think you could stir some additions like nuts or raisins or even chopped apple into this batter. If you do, however, you will very likely require a larger baking pan, such as a 9-inch pan. As it is, this cake totally fills an 8-inch pan when baking.

For the cake
1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 ½ cups unsweetened applesauce

For the frosting
5 ounces cream cheese at room temperature
3 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Butter or spray well with cooking spray an 8-inch (or 9-inch) square baking dish or pan. Set aside.

2. To make the cake, in a medium-size bowl, combine the all-purpose flour, whole wheat pastry flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and 2 teaspoons cinnamon. Whisk together until well-combined.  Set aside.

3. In a large bowl or the bowl of a heavy-duty mixer, beat together the whole stick of butter and brown sugar until the mixture is fluffy, about a minute or two. (Use a hand-held electric mixer or heavy-duty mixer if you can.) Add the eggs one at a time and beat well after each addition.  Beat in the 1 teaspoon vanilla and the applesauce.

4. Mix in the flour mixture a little at a time.  Stir until just combined.

5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly.  Bake at 350 F for 35-40 minutes or until the cake is golden brown and a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out without any raw batter clinging to it.  (Since this is a moist cake, it may come out with some moist crumbs.) Remove the cake from the oven and cool completely on a wire rack.

6.  When the cake has cooled, prepare the frosting. In a medium-size bowl, combine the cream cheese 3 tablespoons butter, and ¼ teaspoon vanilla.  Beat with an electric mixer until smooth.  Sift in (please sift…I often forget and end up with lumpy frosting) the powdered sugar and cinnamon. Beat until smooth. Spread the frosting evenly over the cake.

Makes 9-12 servings. Store in the refrigerator.         

Other recipes like this one: Apple Cinnamon Coffee Cake, Applesauce and Pumpkin Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting, Apple Quick Bread

One year ago: The Messy Apron Pumpkin Pie Spice

Making Applesauce

 

I recently got my hands on such a large and lovely crate of apples that I had to do something other than just eat them all. A friend generously handed them over to me after doing the work of harvesting them from her neighbor’s personal, noncommercial orchard. I’m convinced that if we all had friends and neighbors like this, the world would be a much, much better place.

Anyway, these apples are very large and a bit tart: pretty good for eating out of hand, but my friend said they cook down beautifully for applesauce. Applesauce it would be, then, and, wow! that has been just about the best decision I’ve made this year! I added some sugar, but kept things a bit tart. I added some great apple cider, but also some water to the apples as I saw that they needed more moisture as they cooked. I made some delicious applesauce. Really. And I’m not patting myself on the back here. It’s all about the apples.

 

That concept became even more apparent when I compared what I did to the write-up I produced for this pumpkin applesauce. I had a totally different type of apple that required a longer cooking time and more vigorous mashing to make sauce. My more recent haul of fruit cooked down to sauce in just a few minutes.

And so, instead of writing an exact recipe given precise quantities and cooking times and demanding a particular type of apple (which doesn’t guarantee against variations anyway), I thought I’d just give you a step-wise narrative of how I make applesauce. You really shouldn’t be afraid of it. It’s easy!

First, I peel, core and roughly chop my apples. For these photos, I used about 5 large apples, which fit nicely in my largest skillet. You could make less in a smaller skillet, or lots more in a big pot. 

  

Step 2: Place the apples in a large skillet (or a pot if you want to go that way) with about half a cup of liquid, either water or apple cider, and a generous squeeze of lemon juice. (Really, if you don’t happen to have a lemon on hand, you could skip that, too. It just brightens the flavors a bit, which might not be necessary if you have good apples, and prevents browning.) Stir in some sugar. Here, you want to taste your apples and guess whether they need a lot of sugar, a little, or none at all. I used brown sugar. Heat this all over medium heat.

Step 3: Let things cook. The apples will start to break down and give off some liquid. Add more liquid if the mixture seems to be spattering too much or if you’re concerned it will scorch. Turn down the heat and let the mixture simmer away. You can begin mashing the apples with a spoon or spatula as they begin to soften.

Step 4. Decide if it’s done. Some apples will take much longer to cook. Some will cook down right away. Some will never get really, really soft and you’ll have chunky applesauce. The applesauce I made this year took less than a half hour to be really soft and smooth. The one I made a few years ago took more like 45 minutes to an hour.

 

Taste the mixture for sugar and add more if you like. Add some spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves or ginger if you like. If you want your sauce very smooth, you can mash any remaining apple chunks with a potato masher or blitz the whole thing in a food processor (or baby food blender). And there you have it: Applesauce! Exactly how you want it. Or how the apples you get your hands on dictate it anyway. It’ll be really, really good. Really good!

If you want to preserve your applesauce for the months ahead you can freeze it in freezer-safe containers. If you prefer to can your sauce, please refer to a well-tested recipe and procedure for canning. This sketch I give to you above may not make a mixture that is properly safe for canning. It is fun and delicious, though, and the first batch I made didn’t last long enough to even consider preserving some. Good thing I’ve still got some apples!

Another recipe like this one: Applesauce with Pumpkin and Spices