(Last Updated On: October 10, 2022)
Applesauce cake is a delicious dessert made with applesauce, raisins, and spices. You can also add walnuts to the mix. And then, after it’s done baking in the oven, drizzle some sweet powdered sugar frosting over the top of it.
In brief, about fifty years ago, the neighbor lady next door made an applesauce cake for my husband and me. She made it in one of those little disposable aluminum foil loaf baking pans you can buy at the grocery store. It was “out of this world” delicious… so I asked her for the recipe and she was nice enough to give it to me. So now I am passing it on to you. Enjoy!
Key Ingredients For Applesauce Cake
For the Batter
- 1/2 cup of shortening
- 2 cups of sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 ½ cup of applesauce
Dry Ingredients
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon of salt
- 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon of cloves
- 1 ½ teaspoon of baking soda
- 1 cup of raisins
- 1/2 to 1 cup of walnuts (optional)
Step-By-Step Applesauce Cake Instructions with Photos
Preparing The Batter
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Next, using a spoon, mix 1/2 cup of shortening together with 2 cups of sugar and 2 eggs.
Then, mix 1 and 1/2 cups of applesauce to the shortening, sugar, and eggs mixture. You can substitute unsweetened applesauce if you prefer a bit less sugar content. Either way, it will not affect the taste.
Adding The Dry Ingredients
In a different bowl, add 2 ½ cups of flour together with 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon, 1/8 teaspoon of cloves, and 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda.
Add the flour mixture to the applesauce mixture. After that, thoroughly stir the ingredients together forming a cake-like batter.
Add 1 cup of raisins together with the applesauce batter and mix thoroughly. If you love raisins as I do, you can add another half of a cup.
Spray two loaf pans with cooking spray. We used something similar to these loaf pans for baking the cake. Fill each loaf pan with the applesauce batter.
In one of the loaf pans, we added walnuts. However, if everyone in your family likes walnuts, you can put the applesauce batter into one loaf pan. Cooking time may have to be adjusted by five minutes or so.
Finally, place the loaf pans in the oven and bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.
After 40 minutes of baking, you can do the toothpick test. First, insert a toothpick into the middle of the applesauce cake, then pull it out to check for doneness. It should come out clean.
And last but not least, you can make powdered sugar frosting as we did and drizzle it over the top of the finished cake.
Undoubtedly, the frosting is what makes the cake!! Well, it’s a toss-up, but the two go together so well.
Applesauce Cake Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
For the Batter
- 1/2 cup shortening
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 ½ cups applesauce
Dry Ingredients
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp table salt
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp ground cloves
- 1 ½ tsp baking soda
- 1 cup raisins
- 1/2 cup walnuts (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Preparing The Batter
- Mix the shortening, sugar, and eggs together.
- Then add the applesauce and mix again.
Adding the Dry Ingredients
- In a separate bowl, mix the flour, salt, cinnamon, cloves, and baking soda together.
- Then add the flour mixture to the applesauce mixture.
- Add the raisins and mix well.
- Coat the loaf pans with cooking spray. Fill each pan with the applesauce batter.
- If you want walnuts in one loaf pan or in both loaf pans, you can add them now.
- Place in the oven. Bake for 40 minutes.
- Test the center of the applesauce cake with a toothpick to make sure it is done.
Recipe Notes
- We used 2 loaf pans because we put walnuts in one loaf pan and not the other. You can use one loaf pan for this recipe. The applesauce cake will then rise above the rim of the loaf pan.
- As a topping for your applesauce cake, try this yummy powdered sugar frosting.
- If you like walnuts, you can add up to 1 cup to this recipe. If you don’t like walnuts, you can omit them.
- You can substitute 1/2 cup of vegetable oil instead of 1/2 cup of shortening.
A wife, a mother to a son and a daughter, and a grandmother to three granddaughters. Flo loves sharing recipes passed down from her own mother, her mother-in-law, and her grandmother as well as new recipes created with her daughter, Tamara Ray.
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