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Applesauce Spice Cake Recipe

Filed under Bakery, Dessert, Seasonal Favorites: Fall

Applesauce Spice Cake

July marks the beginning oJf the apple season here. The brightly striped Gravensteins are the first to ripen. And when they do, we spend weeks making homemade applesauce and apple butter. As our freezer is now packed with applesauce, and there's more to come, I thought I would experiment with a recipe in the newly published, practical cookbook Kitchen Sense by Mitchell Davis. The applesauce spice cake came out as good as promised - super moist and spicy. Although the recipe is billed as a "cake", it is similar to banana, zucchini and pumpkin breads; it would make a great muffin as well.

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Applesauce Spice Cake Recipe

Ingredients

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup applesauce
1/4 cup plain yogurt diluted a bit with milk, or 1/4 cup of buttermilk
1/2 cup of chopped walnuts
1/2 cup raisins

Method

1 Preheat oven to 375°F. Butter and flour an 8-in square baking pan, set aside.

2 Sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, cloves, and salt. Set aside.

3 In an electric mixer, beat butter until light, add sugar and beat until fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating to incorporate after each addition. Add the vanilla and the applesauce and beat until smooth.

4 Mix in half of the dry ingredients. Just before they are blended, add the thinned yogurt (or buttermilk). Then mix in the rest of the dry ingredients, until completely incorporated. Do not over-mix.

5 Pour out the batter into your prepared cake pan. Place in the middle rack of the 375°F oven and bake for 25-30 minutes, until done. The cake should spring back to the touch, and a toothpick or thin skewer should come out clean after being inserted in various spots in the middle of the cake. Remove the cake from the oven. Let cool for 15 minutes. Then invert to cool completely on a rack.

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Posted by Elise on Aug 16, 2006 and indexed Apple, Applesauce, Cake, Quick Bread, Spice Bread

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Comments

So timely! In my area of rural northwest Rhode Island, there are apple farms everywhere, and the first of the season's harvest is just starting to come in. I make a similar spice cake, and I always use Granny Smith apples -- tart, to balance the sugar.

Posted by: Lydia on August 17, 2006 3:43 AM

Sounds yummy, I'll have to give it a shot. I have a slightly different version that I like to make too - no raisins or nuts in it & slightly different proportions (plus add 2 T of cocoa in the batter and a topping of chocolate chips, brown sugar and nuts)- but the concept is the same. Served warm with ice cream, it is the best. It is my husband's favorite dessert. Full recipe won't fit in the comment section though! ;)

Posted by: Liz on August 17, 2006 6:08 AM

This looks really good, and Applesauce Spice Cake is a fav around this place. I am going to look up your Apple Butter recipe too, something I have loved since I was tiny, but never in a jar from the store.

I love this site!

Posted by: Kate on August 17, 2006 6:13 AM

My mother makes something similar to this at Christmas time and makes a rum butter sauce to put over it. Makes the kitchen smell wonderful.

Posted by: Kari on August 17, 2006 7:52 AM

It's so funny to say this, but I've never found a spice cake to rival the one they served in my middle school cafeteria! Most of their selections were exactly what you would expect - bland and awful - but their spice cake was moist and flavorful and I looked for it almost every day. Your recipe has me thinking about it, now. I wonder... :)

Posted by: Annie on August 17, 2006 8:23 AM

I would love to make this as muffins. How long do I bake it?

Posted by: gail on August 17, 2006 11:58 AM

Elise,
Absolutely my favorite kind of cake. The raisins are a good idea.

I did this one last winter. Hmmm, I should find an excuse to make it again.

Posted by: Kevin on August 17, 2006 3:27 PM

I love it! I made the recipe into muffins, and they are the perfect snack. Gail, I baked mine for 25 minutes at 400, and they came out perfectly moist and golden brown. There was enough batter for 12 muffins an about a 1" high "cake" in the bottom of a loaf pan. Yum, and thanks!

Posted by: Marie on August 30, 2006 10:53 AM

I tried this recipe last night, and it is delicous, but it took about an hour at 375 to bake.

Posted by: Suzanne on September 8, 2006 3:41 PM

I made this cake last week. It was wonderful. Not too sweet, just right. I baked it in a loaf pan, and it took about 50 minutes. Thank you so much for this lovely recipe, dear Elise!

Posted by: Agota on November 6, 2007 3:22 PM

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