Spiced Apple Sauce Cake with Maple Frosting

For some reason I always seems to have a TO DO list as long as my arm.....often it's longer then my arm.....and I always get cranky because no matter how many things I cross off it, it still gets longer. So when OH told me he was going away for work for nearly 2 months I admit, initially I panicked....then I got slightly cranky, but eventually I moved into my happy place where I realised all the free time I would have to do all those things I never seem to have time for......except that is not quite how it's working out....so far I've cooked, I've cooked some more and when not cooking I have spent time pondering what to cook and then stalking the supermarket aisles to stock my cupboards with plenty of things to cook with.....Oh dear.

And it is that time of year again when I want to cook with pumpkin and with spices and with apples and maple syrup and pecans and ginger and I mean who can focus on a TO DO list when there is Spiced Apple Sauce Cake with Maple Frosting to be made??


For the cake you will need:

2 cups plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon mixed spice
120g unsalted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups or 380 grams unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 180C and grease and line a 8- or 9-inch square cake pan.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the softened butter, sugar and vanilla and beat until creamy.

Add applesauce and eggs, beating well until everything is combined. It will look a little curdled at this stage but it will be OK I promise.

Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices beating until just combined.

Pour batter evenly into pan and bake until golden-brown and a wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean, about 35 to 40 minutes. Cool in pan 15 minutes before inverting onto a plate.

While the cake is cooling you can make the frosting.

In the bowl of your electric mixer combine 80g butter, 3/4 cup icing sugar, 2 tbspns maple syrup, 2 heaped tbspn brown sugar, 1 tbspn custard powder (optional) and 1 tbspn milk. Beat until smooth and fluffy adding more icing sugar if mix is too thin or more butter if it is too thick.

Once cake is cooled, cover with frosting and sprinkle with chopped pecans.

This cake is so moist and delicious, I wish I had got a photo of it once it was cut, but believe me it just melts in your mouth which makes it perfect for morning tea or served warm for dessert with a dollop of cream.....mmmmm

I also made this recipe as a batch of cupcakes and filled them with the frosting before sending them to work with OH....the boys devoured them in an instant which means this recipe is an all round winner for me!!

See.....totally worth ditching the TO DO list for wasn't it?

Em x