Applesauce Spice Cake For Two

 

Applesauce Spice Cake. I confess to having a great love for spice cakes. Not only do they taste pretty wonderful, but they also smell heavenly when they are baking.

Not a lot of people bake spice cakes these days. Spice cake is a bit of an old fashioned concept in cakes.  Young people want sparkle and dazzle. I confess I don't understand the draw to funfetti cakes. Perhaps it is a generational thing.

 

Give me something simple any day of the week and I am more than happy.  Over the moon in fact.

This is an old fashioned cake recipe, much in the style of what your grandmother might have baked, and her mother before her. There are no bells and whistles, not unless you consider a frosting a bell or a whistle! 

 

It uses simple, every day ingredients, and goes perfectly with a nice hot cuppa.  (Today it was Creamy Peach herbal tea.)

It is quite a bit cooler outside today, and raining.  I didn't mind putting my oven on to bake this lovely cake.  And once I walked down to check my mail and returned, the smell of the baked cake started my tastebuds to tingling.

 

I wasn't long making the frosting, icing the cake and putting the kettle on so that I could sit down and enjoy a piece with a nice hot cuppa.

It is a very simple cake to make.  It is also a small batch recipe. It makes four perfect layer cake slices.

 

I frosted it with a cinnamon buttercream frosting.  Just in the middle and on the top. I did not bother with the sides, although you certainly could if you wanted to. 

The cake itself is a simple cake.  Butter and sugar are creamed together to begin with. I used demerara sugar, which is a type of brown sugar.

If you don't want your cake to be quite as dark, you can use ordinary granulated/castor sugar.  I don't mind a dark cake myself, and demerara sugar certainly adds a nice element of flavor and helps to create a moist cake.

I used some applesauce as well.  Because I am on my own, I buy my applesauce in small single serve pots.  The kind you might buy to put in children's lunch boxes. It just makes sense, and there is no waste.  What doesn't go into the cake, I just eat with a spoon.  (Its good for you!  Especially if you buy the unsweetened kind!)

 

 

You only need an egg yolk, not the white. I always freeze the whites.  I always use them. You can add them to omelets if you are making one, or use them to make an angel food cake, once you have enough.

I make a lovely Angel Food Cake for Two. Its delicious! You can find that recipe here.

The cake itself is filled with lots of lovely warm baking spices. Cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cardamom  and some cloves.

I also add vanilla and lemon extracts.  An old Italian woman taught me a long time to add a splash of lemon whenever I was using vanilla in cakes like this.

I am not sure how it works exactly, but the vanilla flavor really pops when you do that!  Its like magic! 

I also added some raisins to the cake.  You don't need to, its completely optional. I happen to really like raisins however and, for me at least, they are a perfect addition to a spice cake.

 

There are not a lot of them, just a few.  Nice little sticky surprises when you go to eat the cake. You could also add toasted walnuts if you wanted to.

Or just leave the cake as is, unadulterated by anything but those lovely warm baking spices.

 

The cake itself bakes in an 8-inch square baking dish. It won't look very tall when you take it out of the oven. You could also bake it in a loaf tin if you wanted to, but I find the 8-inch square dish to be the perfect size. 

I butter it and then line it with paper, leaving an overhang which makes it very easy to lift the cake out when done.

 

The cake itself only takes about 25 minutes to cook.  And it cools very quickly as well.

I like to cut the cooled cake in half down though the center of the cake, creating  two 4 by 8-inch rectangles.  The perfect size for filling and layering together with a lush cinnamon buttercream frosting.

 

This is also very easy to make. Just bang everything into a bowl and beat it up with an electric hand whisk until everything is light, creamy and ready for spreading.   I only fill and top the cake.

As you can see it makes a very generous and creamy filling and topping. There is no need to ice the sides.

This went down a real treat with my hot cuppa, and I guarantee it will go down a real treat with yours too!   A spicy, moist and delicious cake with a fabulously creamy frosting. What's not to enjoy!!

Applesauce Spice Cake with a Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting

Yield: 2 with leftovers

Author: Marie Rayner

Prep time: 10 MinCook time: 25 MinTotal time: 35 Min

This delicious, moist cake is nicely spiced, and studded with raisins. It cuts into exactly four pieces. The cinnamon buttercream is the perfect adornment!

Ingredients

• 2 TBS butter
• 2 TBS demerara sugar, packed (you can use granulated sugar if you want a lighter cake)
• 1 large free range egg yolk (freeze the white for another time)
• 1/4 cup (62g) applesauce 
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp lemon extract
• 2/3 cup (90g) plain all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp ground cloves
• 1/8 tsp ground cardamom
• pinch of salt
• 1/4 cup (60ml) milk
• 1/4 cup (35g) dark raisins (optional)

For the frosting:

• 2 TBS butter
• 2 cups (260g) icing sugar, sifted
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 2 TBS milk (or as needed)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350*F/180*C/ gas mark 4.  Butter an 8 inch square baking dish. Line with baking paper, leaving an overhang for ease in lifting out.
2. Sift together the flour, spices, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
3. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg yolk, vanilla and lemon extracts, and apple sauce. (If the batter curdles, add a spoonful of the flour mixture.)
4. Beat in the flour, alternately with the milk. You should have a batter with a soft dropping consistency. 
5. Fold in the raisins, if using, and then spread the batter in the prepared baking dish.
6. Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes, until risen, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. The top should also spring back when lightly touched.
7. Lift out from the baking dish and allow to cool completely on a wire rack.
8. To make the icing measure all of the ingredients into a bowl and beat together, only adding enough milk to give you a smooth and creamy consistency. (You may need more milk. ) 
9. Cut the cake in half through the center.
10. Put a dollop of icing on a serving plate.  Place 1/2 of the cake on the plate, bottom side up.  Spread with half the icing. Place the other cake half on top, right side up.  Spread the remaining frosting on top.

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