Old Fashioned Applesauce Cake

An Old Family Recipe Made Over

My Mother-in-law has a family recipe for applesauce cake.  I decided to play with it a little bit and make it a tad bit healthier.

We love freshly ground flour.  When we first started grinding our own wheat, we noticed a great improvement in our health.  Using freshly ground flour was one of our first health changes we made to our diet way back at the beginning of our journey into whole foods.

I love to use spelt now, but when I make muffins or quick breads like pumpkin bread or banana bread, I use red wheat.  It just seems hardier to me and I like the way it works in those “heavier” type breads.  I used hard red wheat for this recipe.  The applesauce cake is a heavier cake and one that does not need frosting.  Although a dollop of freshly whipped cream tastes wonderful on it.  I will post the recipe at the end.  I needed 3 cups of flour, but I always like to have some extra in case.  The standard ratio of grain to flour is 1 cup of grain to 1.5 cups of flour.  Sometimes it is a bit less.

Hard Red Wheat ready to mill.

I have used many different types of grain mills and I really liked the WonderMill.  It was quick and easy to use and the flour turned out great.

 

Wheat in the hopper The flour

The recipe calls for you to sift the flour along with the other dry ingredients. So, I sifted the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cocoa and cloves together into my bowl.  I then added raisins and walnuts.  In another bowl, I mixed together the softened butter, Sucanat and applesauce.  I added the dry ingredients into the wet mixture stirring it together well.  This makes a very THICK batter.  I had to use a spatula to spread it out in the baking dish.

The batter is thick and needs to be spread out

Once I had it all smoothed out, I decided to add a bit of a garnish.  I thinly sliced an apple and put the circles of apple along the top of the batter.

IMG_8164

I then baked it set it out to cool.

All warm and ready to eat

This is a good breakfast cake.  🙂  It is a hardy treat for any time of the day really.  It does not need frosting, but if you decided to add some, some cream cheese frosting would be a good flavor to add.  We eat it plain, but if company were here, I would serve with a big dollop of freshly whipped cream.  Enjoy!

Old Fashioned Applesauce Cake

  • 3 cups, flour
  • 2 tsp baking soda
  • pinch of salt
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • 2 tsp cocoa powder
  • 1 tsp cloves, ground
  • 1 cup raisins
  • 1/2 cup walnut pieces
  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • 1.5 cups Sucanat (or brown sugar)
  • 2 cups Applesauce

Preheat oven to 350°.  Grease 9″ X 13″ pan (I used butter).   Sift together all of the dry ingredients.  In another bowl, mix the butter, sucanat and applesauce.  Then start adding the flour mixture in making sure you mix it well.  This will be a very thick batter.  Spread it out evenly in the pan.  Add a garnish of apple slices if you like.  Bake for 45-60 mins. until a knife inserted comes out clean.

Recipe adapted from Jean Blubaugh’s (my Mother-in-law)

About Marci at Amazing Graze Farm

Marci and her husband are blessed to be able to raise and grow much of their own food.  They grew up city kids, but have been homesteading for over 15 years. They began eating healthy and including whole grains in their diet almost 20 years ago and really noticed a health change for the better.  Marci enjoys fiber arts of all types and loves old fashioned skills, especially in the kitchen.  You can read all about life down on the farm over at http://www.amazinggrazefarm.com.

I really enjoyed using the WonderMill. I have used many different grain mills and was very pleased with the ease of using and cleaning this mill. The flour was fine and did well in the recipes that I used. I also was pleased at how quickly it ground the spelt into flour. I had not been baking as much of late, and this project got me back in the swing of things. I have already shared about this mill with those who were looking for a mill. I am very grateful for the opportunity that I was given.
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