Apple Spice Cake with Caramel Frosting – Day Two – Applesauce Spice Cake
I am doing the happy dance!
Not only because this cake was AWESOME and you’ve got to make it, but because my daughter goes back to school tomorrow! Finally!
If you also follow me on Pint Sized Baker, you know that she has been driving me nuts for the past two weeks. Public School has been in session and she has had nobody to play with. She isn’t interested in arts and crafts, she doesn’t want to read yet, she doesn’t want to play outside by herself. All she wants to do is watch tv, play Minecraft, and eat. That’s pretty much it. Oh… and bug me!
These last two weeks have been harder than all of summer! Oh my! I know I’m just complaining, but jeez! Mama needs a break!
Enter this thing of beauty.
This cake was even more wonderful than I could have imagined. It’s full of chunky applesauce, pecans, raisins, and spiced up with cinnamon and nutmeg. It’s totally the perfect fall dessert.
The cake was great by itself. Yes, a scoop of vanilla ice cream would have been great, but honestly, just by itself it was good. The applesauce kept it moist on the inside even though it’s a pretty dense cake. I was tempted to divide the batter into two 9 inch cake pans when I saw how much batter there was, but I’m glad I didn’t. It’s not a light spongy cake.
The pecans can be replaced with walnuts and the raisins can be replaced with dates, currants, or even craisins. Mix it up and have fun.
I hope you make it because I know you’ll enjoy it.
Prep time:
Cook time:
Serves: 1 9 inch cake
- 1½ cup flour
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- 1.2 teaspoon allspice
- ⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 8 tablespoons butter
- ¾ cup light brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 cup chunky applesauce
- 1 cup chopped pecans
- 1 cup raisins
- Preheat oven to 350 deg F.
- Prepare a 9 inch round pan with shortening or baking spray. A bundt pan or a loaf pan will also work.
- Combine all dry ingredients (first eight listed) into a bowl and stir with a fork.
- Put the butter into a mixer and beat for 3o seconds until it's light and creamy. Beat in brown sugar for 3 minutes until all the lumps are out and the mixture is smooth, then beat in the egg.
- Add the flour mixture in 3 parts, alternating with 2 parts applesauce. Beat on low until just combined.
- Add in nuts and raisins.
- Bake for 30 minutes in a 9 inch round pan. A bundt pan will take 15 minutes longer and a loaf pan will take almost an hour to bake all the way through. This is a dense, moist cake- be sure to test it for doneness.
- Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
- Keep it simple and sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve it with a scoop of ice cream.
To keep the raisins from falling to the bottom of the cake, add a pinch of flour to a baggie and toss the raisins in the flour coating them. Then add to the batter.
It’s gorgeous Karyn!
This looks so good! And not a calorie bomb either! Pinning Also, too bad we don’t live closer, our kids could bug each other – they sound like the same person, lol!
well… I don’t know about calorie bomb… This wasn’t how I ate it… I totally added 1,000 calories in the frosting. Watch for the post on Friday.
Going to use this recipe to make cupcakes. I love all the ingredients in this cake and can’t wait to get my mixer going. Yummy!
I’d be curious to know how it turns out in cupcake form. Remember to reduce the baking time. I don’t expect these to dome very much. If you want a domed top, try preheating the oven to 400 then reduced the oven to 325 to bake. The extra hot oven will help them puff up.
Will let you know as soon as I make them xoxox
I’ve had a jar of chunky peach applesauce at the back of my fridge for a few months now, and yay, something to use it in! (Don’t worry! I checked the expiration date and tasted it before using it, heh. Still good, with chunks of peaches in it.) I didn’t add the raisins (boyfriend not a fan), but used pecans, and when I tasted it before popping it in the oven…yummy! Thank you for sharing this; I fall back on chocolate way too much, and this should push me towards other flavors.
Peachy applesauce sounds great! I bet it was good! Did you take it to the next step with the caramel frosting?? Thanks for stopping by!
Oh, it was amazing! It was a much more subtle flavor than I was thinking, because the applesauce was a bit strong. I didn’t do any frosting, just stuck with the powdered sugar, since the boyfriend also isn’t too fond of caramel, heh. In either case, I’ll be poking around for more recipes.