Apple Sauce Cake Recipe Like Granny Used to Make

I was pretty young when my granny passed away, but she was the kind of woman that made it hard to forget her. She was so spunky and full of life. I can still see her puttering around her house always staying busy. I can remember being around five or six and going down to her little house beside Howard’s Creek. The front of her house was lined with rose of sharon that blocked the front of house from view to anyone passing by. I always thought it was like walking through the enchanted garden when I passed through the small space in the plants that led to her front door.

When I think of Granny I think of two things: ghost stories and food. Granny lived by the tunnel in Caldwell. The tunnel had this long walk through rickety wooden bridge on one side, separated from the car tunnel. Granny would often tell me about the ghost of a young girl that haunted that walk through bridge at night. As a little kid it terrified me so I never tried to go anywhere near that bridge, which I feel was probably her motive for telling me about that girl. To be honest though, I still find myself looking for that girl every time I pass through that bridge at night when I go home to see my momma.

Granny was also quick to feed you anytime you came to her house. She was not about to let one of her great grandbabies go hungry. I remember her kitchen best of all. It was a small eat in kitchen with a little side porch off of it. My sister, uncle, and I would go down in the summer and I can still hear the sound of that screen door slamming as we ran in and out from playing at the creek. I feel like I can almost see granny standing at her stove puttering around as she made us a bowl of potato soup or baked us a snack cake.

Granny had this thing of always chopping your food into miniscule little pieces. It didn’t matter what it was, she was chopping it up. None of her great grandkids were going to get choked on her watch! So potato soup turned to mush and fried eggs resembled a fine egg spread of sorts, but I still thought she was the best cook in the world.

One of the cakes I can remember granny making is an applesauce cake. While this is not her recipe, it is my homage to a once great and fierce woman who loved us dearly. I prefer a slightly “spicier” applesauce cake than what I can remember granny doing, which is what I am going to share with you here. I am also using my homemade apple sauce in this recipe, but you can use store bought and it will turn out just as delicious. I hope you all enjoy it!

To begin you will want to get your oven preheated to a low 325 degrees. The cake is going to be a very moist cake, and the low temp helps to keep this moisture in and prevent over browning during the longer bake time. You will also want to prepare your pan with non-stick spray. I use a 10 inch tube pan for this recipe, but you can also use a bundt pan if you prefer. I use the tube pan because that is most similar to what my granny used.

To prep for the cake you will want to soak your raisins in warm water to give them some extra plumpness. In the microwave, warm two cups of water for about a minute and a half. Remove from the microwave and stir in your raisins. Let the raisins sit in the warm water while you prepare the rest of the cake. You will notice they start to plump up. That is just what you want! By presoaking your raisins you will be rewarded with a soft burst of raisin sweetness when you bite into your finished cake. If you are feeling a little frisky, feel free to soak your raisins in bourbon instead of water. I am making this cake for my kiddos, so water is what I will be using today. You can also use the stove top to warm your liquid of choice. I choose to do mine in the microwave because it seems faster to me.

After you have prepped and gathered all of your ingredients, it is time to start the cake!

You will start out by beating your butter and brown sugar in a large mixing bowl on high speed. I have seen many recipes that use just plain white sugar, but I feel that it doesn’t give the depth of flavor to the cake nor impart moisture like the brown sugar does. While this mixture beats away and becomes nice and fluffy, you will need to assemble your dry ingredients.

In a small bowl combine your spices, baking soda, and all purpose flour. I love to use really bold spices like clove in my applesauce cake, but feel free to tweak the spice level to your desire. I also use pumpkin pie spice in mine because I love the mixture of spices that it brings to the table without the extra measuring. But if you do not have it, use a combination of nutmeg, ginger, and allspice or you can leave it out all together if that’s just not your thing.

Now that you have your dry ingredients mixed together in a small bowl, and your butter sugar mixture is all nice and fluffy you are ready to put it all together. Reduce the speed to low and add the flour and applesauce alternately to the butter mixture. Start and end with flour this will prevent a “curdled” look to your cake. Mix until just combined then remove from the mixer. Hand stir in your drained, presoaked raisins and nuts until evenly distributed. Pour into your prepared pan and bake for one to one and a half hours or until a tooth pick inserted comes out clean.

Once the cake is done, remove from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack in the pan for 15 minutes. Take a knife and gently run it along the outside edge of the cake to loosen. Invert onto wire rack and remove from pan. Allow to cool completely.

This cake stores well when wrapped tightly in saran wrap. You can also store in the fridge covered to extend the life of the cake. Better yet, this cake also freezes exceptionally well, just make sure it is completely cooled and well wrapped to prevent any ice crystals from forming.

Applesauce Cake

hacketthillfarm

A delicious easy applesauce spice cake studded with plump raisins and beautiful pecans

Print Recipe

Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 1 hour hr 30 minutes mins

Course Breakfast, Dessert, Snack

Cuisine American

Servings 1 10 inch cake

Ingredients

  

• ¾ cup Butter softened
• 2 cups Brown Sugar packed
• 1½ cups Raisins soaked and drained
• 1 tsp Ground Clove
• 1 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice
• 2 tsp Ground Cinnamon
• 2 tsp Baking Soda
• 3 cups All-purpose flour
• 2 cups Applesauce
• 1 cup Pecans chopped

Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 325° and spray 10 inch tube pan or bundt pan with non-stick cooking spray.
• Beat butter and brown sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.
• In separate bowl combine spices, baking soda, and flour
• Add flour and applesauce alternately into the butter mixture starting and ending with flour
• Stir in raisins and nuts by hand until just combined. Pour batter into prepared pan and spread evenly.
• Bake at 325° for 1 hour to 1 ½ hours until toothpick inserted comes out clean
• Cool baked cake in pan for 15 minutes before turning out onto wire rack to cool completely

Keyword apple, applesauce, cake, fall baking, fresh apples

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