2 c. plain flour
1/4 t. salt
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. cloves
1/2 t. nutmeg
2 T. baking soda
1 c. sugar
1 c. raisins
1-1/2 c. coarsely chopped pecans
1 stick butter, melted
2 c. apple sauce (hot)
Sift together flour, salt, soda, and spices.
Add raisins and nuts.
Stir in melted butter and hot applesauce; mix well.
Note: Batter will be very thick.
Spoon batter into buttered tube or bundt pan.
Bake at 275 F for approx. 1-1/2 hours.
Cake is done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
Peel, core, and slice apples.
Put in pot, cover.
Cook over low heat until apples reduce to sauce.
The even lazier way is to rinse the apples, put them in a pot, put the lid on, cook until the apples start falling apart, run them through a food mill, eat. Last week my three year old made a batch with minimal help.
Also, apples aren’t all the same. Granny Smith aren’t Braeburn aren’t Fuji, aren’t Pink Lady…
I’d just look up an apple sauce recipe to see if any recommend varieties and perhaps mix them up to get the right flavors (which is what I do when doing apple pie). Or, for this recipe, I’d just buy apple sauce. The subtleties of homemade vs store bought are unlikely to matter that much here.
egs.
Macs you cook without peeling and coring and run through the mill.
Goldens hold their shape, so you want to cook and then blend slightly to keep the chunks.
Backyard mutt apples you have to carefully peel and cut out the worms and rust.
As for the cake, the recipe sounds like my grandmother’s, and that goes back more than a century.
A classic that I prefer with the sugar cut back, served at breakfast with yogurt.
That depends on the apples - some varieties fall apart, some hold their shape. But I never puree, since I like it a bit chunky. If it’s too chunky, I use the potato masher.
I have decided preferences for eating-out-of-hand apples and for pie apples, but in this recipe I don’t think it makes much difference.
Despite the name, it’s more of a raisin-nut-spice cake than an apple cake; the apple sauce makes it dense and moist.
If the apples are not tart, I do add some lemon juice (this time, the juice of one large lemon to 8 or 9 apples, which made 4 cups of sauce).
Thanks for the bump Robert. This is the cake that I asked my Mom to make for my birthday, she had a recipe for the frosting from my great Aunt that really hit the spot for me.
Finally made this for the first time. Delicious, though I might have liked it a little sweeter if it’s going to be a standalone dessert (perhaps the applesauce I used was tarter than average?). Perfect as is with ice cream or whipped cream or as a breakfast cake. Or I might also try an icing next time.