easy applesauce cake

This will be shocking to you, but I don’t always seek out the most complicated recipes I can get my hands on! Sometimes I like to get something in the oven as fast as I can, and this recipe is one that fits the bill. It comes together in about 10 minutes and then pops in the oven. It’s not the most gorgeous cake I’ve ever seen, with a tender, slightly loose crumb that doesn’t release from the pan completely evenly – this isn’t a cake that will slice particularly gracefully. It is, however, delicious, with plenty of apple flavor and just the right balance of spices.

This is a cake you could even eat for breakfast, because it involves relatively little in the way of fats (oil and eggs). It’s moist, but not overly so – something that can plague oil-based cakes. You could make this with just a regular whisk, but I think using a hand mixer helps emulsify the batter better.  If you have the time and wish to spend more than 10 minutes making this cake, I recommend making the applesauce yourself – you will have that much more control over what goes into it, and how concentrated it is. I simmered my applesauce for about 5 hours, and it had a silky, slightly unctuous mouthfeel that you don’t get from storebought applesauce, somewhere between applesauce and apple butter. It also had a more concentrated apple flavor than regular applesauce. No need to pass it through a food mill unless you left the peels in – it gets smoother the longer it cooks.

You could top this cake with a glaze – the original recipe includes one – but I think this is best plain.  If you wanted to garnish it, you could either add raisins to the batter, or serve the cake with brandied whipped cream.

Applesauce cake
(adapted slightly from food52)

For the applesauce:
5 large, tart apples (I used Pink Lady)

For the cake:
2c flour
1 1/2t baking soda
1t salt
1/4t finely ground black pepper
2t cinnamon
1t ground ginger (you could also add some ginger juice if you wanted to punch up the ginger flavor)
1/4t allspice
2 eggs
1c sugar
1/2c light brown sugar
1 1/2c of the applesauce (or use unsweetened storebought)
2/3c vegetable oil
1. To make the applesauce, peel and core the apples, then chop them. Put the apple chunks in a medium saucepan and add water until just shy of the top of the apples. Bring to a boil, then simmer until the applesauce is completely broken down and reduced, anywhere from an hour to 5 hours (for really smooth and flavor-packed applesauce). The applesauce will get a little sweeter as it reduces more – if you let it reduce for a while, give it a stir every now and then so the bottom doesn’t burn.

2. To make the cake, heat the oven to 350 degrees and butter and flour a 12-cup Bundt pan. You could also make this cake as a sheet cake in a 9×13 pan, or as a two-layer cake in 9″ cake pans, or as a loaf cake in 2 loaf pans – you’ll just have to adjust the baking times. Stir together the flour, baking soda, salt, pepper and spices to combine and set aside.

3. In a large bowl, beat the eggs with both sugars until light (at least 2 minutes, with 30 seconds on high – the mixture will look silky). Mix in the applesauce, oil and vanilla until smooth (again, give it a whirl at high speed once it’s mostly mixed, to get it mixed realy well – watch out for splatter, though).

4. Using a spatula, fold in the dry ingredients, being careful not to over-mix. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 45-50 minutes, until a cake tester inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool the cake for 10 minutes in the pan on a rack before turning it out and cooling completely on the rack.

[serves 10-12]