I love a good applesauce cake, but find they are often lacking in flavor or texture. Tonight with my supper I had a dish of applesauce and it gave me a craving for an applesauce cake. I decided to do a bit of searching online to see if I could come up with a recipe that sounded like it would be both flavorful and moist. After reading over recipe and recipe, I finally found one that sounded like what I wanted on the Betty Crocker website. I mixed it up, added a bit extra spice to it and chunky applesauce instead of regular. The batter looked a little thin, but ok, maybe that is how was supposed to look. I popped it into the oven let it bake the stated time. It rose up beautifully and smelled divine. I let it cool an hour, then made a thick glaze that I spread over the cooled cake I couldn't wait, I had to cut it. It was perfect!!! Just the kind of applesauce cake I've dreamed of, but rarely found. This recipe will be a keeper! Here is the recipe with the changes I made, the original recipe can be found at the link above.
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. ginger
tiny pinch of cloves
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 1/3 cup chunky applesauce
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 medium apple, peeled, cored and chopped (about 3/4 cup)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9x13 inch cake pan. In a large bowl mix all the ingredients except the chopped apple and beat with an electric mixer until everything is well blended, then increase the speed to high for 2 minutes. Fold in the chopped apple and spread in the prepared fan. The batter will appear to be very thin. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until well browned, a toothpick comes out clean and the cake begins to pull away from the side of the pan. Cool for about an hour, then cover with the glaze.
Brown butter glaze
4 tbsp. butter
1 tsp. vanilla
about 2 cups powdered sugar
a couple tbsp. milk or cream
In a small saucepan, heat the butter and cook until it just begins to brown. Remove from heat immediately. It can burn easily and get a bitter taste, discard if that happens. Beat the vanilla and browned butter into the powdered sugar and add enough milk to make a very thick cream that can just barely be poured. Spread it evenly over the top of the cooled cake. Then enjoy!
