Magic and Mayhem

The kids and I have an ongoing applesauce cake experiment going on and it’s turned out to be a lot of fun — and tasty and healthy too!

Anna asked me last week if we could make an applesauce cake together and I set out to find a recipe.  I found one and we made one adjustment (we left out the raisins) and cooked it up.  It was delicious!

Victoria mentioned it was almost vegan.  Thinking about it, there didn’t seem to be a good reason for including butter since the heavy spice flavor cancelled out any butter flavor so we tried it again with canola oil this time.  It was just as good, and healthier now too.  We also thought the original tasted too strongly of cloves (and we like spice!) so we cut that amount in half.

Then last night I decided to double the recipe since we eat it up so quickly, and try it with pumpkin pie spice instead of cloves.  I ran out of organic white flour so I used half that and for the rest I used a combination of organic whole wheat and organic whole spelt flour.  I’m not even sure what spelt is, but a friend gave me an assortment of flours a while back and I keep them in my fridge for experiments. 

I also decided to turn it into a one bowl, no mixer required recipe.  If I’m going to make it every other day I want it to take 5 minutes. 

Our latest applesauce cake recipe is quite different from the original but really tasty.  It’s extremely moist, sweet and flavorful.  We’ve decided that every time we make it we’ll have to change one thing, so it’s never the same cake twice.

If you’d like to play along, here’s our current version….

Ever-Changing Applesauce Cake  (let the kids rename it each time!)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (can use half whole wheat and half white)

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp cloves

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup olive oil, canola oil or coconut oil (or other healthy oil)

1 cup sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup unsweetened applesauce

1.  Preheat oven to 350.  Grease and flour a 9″ square pan. 

2.  Put applesauce in measuring cup and add baking soda.  Stir and let sit while you do the next step.  Explain to the kids that the base in the soda is reacting to the acid in the applesauce and releasing CO2 gas which will help the cake rise.  <G>  (Here’s a good page with the difference between baking soda and baking powder, for those of us who can’t resist making everything educational!)

 3.  In a large bowl, combine sugar and oil.  Stir with a wooden spoon or whisk.  Stir in applesauce mixture.  Add flour, salt and spices.  Stir till just combined, so you don’t get a tough cake.

4.  Pour into pan.  Bake for 40-50 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

5.  Cool slightly and serve warm or room temperature.  Dust with powdered sugar if desired. 

Possible changes– add chopped raisins, substitute powdered oats for part of the flour, stir in white chocolate chips, try nutmeg instead of cloves, add coconut or chopped walnuts…

Now I have baby birds I’ve been summoned to see.  Have a great day!