I Knew You Were Coming So I Baked A Cake

I really wished you could have stopped by for a bite of this delicious Applesauce Cake that I made last night. It came out so moist and paired well with a cold glass of milk.

Look at the beautiful, fluffy batter dotted with spices...




I didn't have a tube pan like the recipe called for so I baked it in a bundt pan...




Here it is right after coming out of the oven. The aroma was delightful!




The icing looks beautiful dripping down the sides of the cake...




Of course, we had to try it...




Here's the recipe from Allrecipes.com...

MOTHER'S APPLESAUCE CAKE

3-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon cloves
3 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 cup butter
2 cups packed brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
3 cups unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup dates, pitted and chopped
1 cup chopped walnuts

Icing:
1/2 cup butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar

1. Whisk together flour, salt, cinnamon, cloves and soda. Set aside.

2. Cream together 1/2 cup butter and 2 cups brown sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Mix in eggs. Add flour mixture into creamed mixture alternately with applesauce, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Stir in the raisins, dates, and walnuts. Pour into greased and floured tube pan.

3. Bake at 300 degrees F (150 degrees C) for 1-1/2 hours, or until done. Cool.

4. To make icing, melt 1/2 cup butter in a small saucepan over low heat, stir in 1 cup brown sugar. Boil for 2 minutes. Stir in milk, and continue to stir until the mixture returns to a boil. Remove from heat, and cool for 5 minutes. Beat in vanilla and confectioners' sugar. Frost cooled cake.


***My personal opinion...I think the cloves in this recipe can be cut by 1/2 depending on your taste. I used a scant teaspoon this time after reading the reviews for this recipe. I'm going to cut the the cloves to 1/2 teaspoon the next time I make it. My taste buds are still pretty dull due to my cold and I could still taste a strong clove flavor in this cake.
Another thing that I should mention is to cut the icing recipe to 1/4 unless you enjoy a huge amount of icing. This makes way too much icing for my taste and I have a very sweet tooth.
The fruits and nuts were omitted from the cake due to picky family members.
Be sure to test the cake during the last half hour of baking. My cake was ready to come out of the oven 10 minutes earlier than the recipe called for.

***By the way, I haven't had an applesauce cake for over 20 years and I had been thinking about the applesauce cake with raisins that my mom would make when I was a child. I hunted around for quite a while until I found a recipe with pretty good ratings and then took the plunge. Worth every calorie, I tell you. I also wanted to mention that my son says that the spices are just right as it is. I guess this is where personal taste comes in.

Aloha!