A couple weeks ago I got an email from fellow cookbook author, Anne Byrn, who I had worked with a couple years back when she was passing through town promoting one of her cookbooks. Anne wrote to let me know that she just released a new cookbook, American Cake, which features iconic American cakes and the history and stories that surround them. She was gracious enough to let me share one of the recipes with all of you, so I chose this 1917 Applesauce Cake.
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About the Book, American Cake
Okay, let me just say that American Cake is absolutely stunning. It’s a hardcover book full of beautiful photography and fascinating stories to go along with each recipe.
The recipes are arranged in chronological order from the mid 1600’s through the present and Anne discusses the changing culture of each era and how events shaped the use of ingredients and baking styles of the time.
I could happily cozy up in a corner with this book and read it like a novel. It’s so much more than just recipes and is perfect for history buffs. It’s definitely going on my holiday gift guide this year! You can read more about the book and find out where to buy it here.
About the Apple Sauce Cake
I chose to make the 1917 Applesauce Cake because of its simplicity. It has only a few ingredients and is easily made vegan for my vegan friends (just replace butter with a solid plant-based fat, like shortening or coconut oil).
But most of all, this cake is not too-too sweet or rich. The warm spices make it perfect for fall or pairing with a rich cup of coffee. The small amount of fat in this cake means that it feels fairly light on the stomach and I didn’t feel weighed down afterwards.
…Although I have to admit, that scoop of vanilla ice cream that I put on top made it absolutely heavenly! Something about the mix of cool and warm, vanilla and spices. Oh yes.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy this recipe and I can’t recommend this book enough!
Can I Make This Cake Vegan?
Yes! This recipe is SUPER simple to convert into a vegan cake. Simply replace the 2 Tbsp butter with cooking oil and you’re good to go!
Anne Byrn’s 1917 Applesauce Cake
Servings 9 1 piece eachIngredients
- 1 cup sugar ($0.16)
- 2 Tbsp butter (plus some for the pan) ($0.31)
- 1 cup unsweetened applesauce ($0.64)
- 2 cups all-purpose flour (plus 1 Tbsp) ($0.19)
- 1 tsp baking soda ($0.04)
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon ($0.05)
- 1/2 tsp ground cloves ($0.05)
- 1/4 tsp salt ($0.02)
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg ($0.03)
- 2/3 cup raisins ($0.72)
Instructions
- Allow the butter to come to room temperature. Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Coat the inside of an 8×8-inch baking dish with butter.
- In a large bowl, cream together 2 Tbsp of butter and the sugar using a hand mixer or mixing by hand with a wooden spoon. Add the applesauce and stir to combine.
- In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, salt, and nutmeg until well combined.
- Pour the flour mixture into the applesauce mixture and stir just until combined.
- In a separate small bowl, toss the raisins with about 1 Tbsp flour until they are lightly coated. Fold the flour coated raisins into the cake batter. Spread the cake batter into the prepared baking dish.
- Bake the cake for 30-35 minutes, or until the the center springs back when pressed. Let the cake cool for 15 minutes before slicing into 9 pieces.
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Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!Scroll down to see the step by step photos!
How to Make Applesauce Cake – Step by Step Photos
I just wanted to give you a little sneak peek inside the book. Like I said, the photography is GORGEOUS and each recipe comes with an awesome little story about the cake and how it is representative of what was going on in the country at the time. This 1917 Applesauce cake uses really basic ingredients and is considerate of ingredients that were rationed during WWI. Sounds like a perfect fit for today’s budgets, too!
Start out by greasing the inside of an 8×8-inch baking dish (or similar size-mine is more like 7×9). Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
In a large bowl, cream together 2 Tbsp butter and 1 cup sugar. I decided to use a wooden spoon so I could feel like I was making this in 1917. Just kidding! The beaters for my hand mixer were dirty and I was too lazy to go wash them. Jokes on me though, because this definitely took more effort with a wooden spoon than it would have taken to wash the beaters. SMH.
Stir in one cup of unsweetened applesauce.
In a separate bowl, stir together 2 cups all-purpose flour, 1 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ground cloves, 1/4 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp nutmeg until well combined.
Combine the applesauce mixture with the flour mixture…
And stir just until combined.
In a separate bowl, toss 3/4 cup raisins with about 1 Tbsp flour until they’re coated. There is a note in the book about how coating the raisins in this manner helps them stay suspended in the batter instead of sinking to the bottom. Cool! Once coated, fold the raisins into the cake batter.
Spread the cake batter into the prepared dish.
Bake the cake for 30-35 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and the center springs back when you press on it lightly. You can also give it the toothpick test and insert a toothpick into the center. If it comes out clean, it’s done. If it comes out coated with wet cake batter, then it needs a few more minutes.
Let the cake cool for about 15 minutes, then slice into 9 pieces and serve. I accidentally sliced mine into 12 pieces and they were a tad small, so I would suggest nine.
You can give it a light dusting of powdered sugar, or go big and add a big ol’ scoop of ice cream.
What? I had to eat it before the ice cream melted. ;D
Wow this was good, and somehow seemed perfect for Easter, with golden raisins. I used parchment paper in a 8 x 8 pan, and replaced butter with avocado oil. It turned out deliciously moist after 40 minutes. Unsweetened applesauce is a must, because a whole cup of sugar is added. Next time, I will try adding some orange zest to the dry ingredients and see what happens! :)
Delicious! I’ve made this a few times now and it always turns out good. I like the spices and that it’s not too sweet or heavy. Made it for Christmas and really enjoyed it. Made the apartment smell good too.
This looks amazing. Any thoughts from anyone who’s tried gluten free? I’m going to try it with an all-purpose 1-1 blend and report back.
Made this cake and it was a terrific smell in the oven for fall!! I left out cloves (not a fan) and used vegan butter. The texture was wonderful. It’s a perfect simple snacking cake. I did need to bake for 35 minutes. One of my favorite things to make in the fall is applesauce in my crockpot. I used applesauce from a jar for the recipe tonight but wondering if anyone has tried to make this with homemade applesauce? I can’t help but thinking a fresh, chunky applesauce instead of store bought might be amazing here?
Every summer my grandma would always make me a homemade birthday cake and I would choose applesauce cake or carrot cake and they were the best tasting cakes ever . Thanks for the recipe so I don’t have to look for her recipe.
I really like this cake and have made it many times. Each time I have such difficulty getting the center of the cake to bake all the way through. I have adjusted the baking time and the temperature and have yet to get the middle to not be too soft and underbaked. Please advise what to do. You say “baking dish” so I’ve used a glass baking dish and have adjusted the temperature accordingly. Such good flavor but really frustrating that I have extra time in the kitchen popping it in and out of the oven to no avail. Thanks for your guidance in this
Absolutely amazing cake recipe!! Very inexpensive and is not a sweet cake mix. My spouse can’t eat sugary desserts and he really enjoyed this!! I am adding this one to my recipe book for sure. A must have if you have children that like cake. Next time I am going to try homemade apple sauce from our apple tree. Apple pieces along with the raisins will make an awesome combination, plus great way to use up the apple tree apples. Thank you for sharing this amazing recipe! 😀
Love old recipes…always have ingredients on hand
I love the taste of this but I have continued to have problems getting the center to cook enough. I raised the temperature to 360 and bake it 35 minutes and it’s still doughy in the middle. I’ve also kept it at 350 and continued up to 40 minutes with the peripheral pieces borderline over baked and the center still doughy. Anyone else have this problem? What do you suggest?
Hmm, I’ve never encountered that problem. I wonder if reducing the applesauce slightly might help by reducing the moisture a bit?
I think I’ll try a bigger pan and use metal instead. I’d hate to use less applesauce and run the risk it gets to dry.
That’s occasionally happened to me, too, maybe to a lesser degree than what you’re describing. I’m trying to remember what I did – maybe cover the pan with foil towards the end? I haven’t minded a little softness because there’s no eggs anyway, but it does crop up for me once in a while.
Made the recipe mostly as printed, except I think I may have undercooked mine a bit due to cooking for a little over 20 minutes. I thought the spice was nice and forward in this recipe. For those who think it doesn’t taste like much of anything, remember to sniff your spices before using! I suspect some may be using old, less pungent spices. I ground up whole clove and microplaned some nutmeg for extra fresh flavor. This recipe is light, warm, spicy, and good! I will make it again.
hoping you can help me out….i have made this recipe and it’s amazing, but I accidentally picked up strawberry applesauce this time and afraid it will be weird in this, can i make modifications so it works or is there another recipe you could suggest? thx in advance!
Hmm, unfortunately, I’ve never had strawberry applesauce so I’m not sure how it would work in this recipe or anything else you could use it for. :(
I looked up “desserts using strawberry applesauce” and saw a Google listing for strawberry applesauce muffins. Try Googling that! Sounds like a great place to experiment :)
I was looking for a simple breakfast cake that used applesauce and was low-calorie as far as cakes go. This one really satisfied me. The cake has an apple flavor in the background but it’s more of a raisin-spice cake than an apple cake overall, which is fine by me especially in winter season. The spices aren’t overpowering but they are definitely there, the only thing I changed was that I more than halved the cloves because freshly ground cloves are an extremely dominant spice. I also soaked the raisins in some wine that I had beforehand because I like plump raisins, but that’s totally optional.
Also, this cake only has two tablespoons of oil/butter and still tastes good with good texture (and no eggs!). I was a bit skeptical about that but it worked.
Overall, it reminds me of certain old-fashioned autumn/winter sweets like grape must sweets. I will mak it again for sure.
Delicious and easy! Left out raisins and added splash of vanilla extract; will make again and again.
Can I add diced apple to the recipe instead of raisins?
I usually LOVE all the BudgetBytes recipes. This cake was okay but a little strong as far as spices go but Im sure that’s just my personal preference. Still delicious but I would halve the amount of spices if I make this again.
I have made this cake many times since getting Ann Byrne’s cookbook. It is so easy to make and delicious! I find I need to bake it longer than suggested, however.
Made this today! Incredibly easy, and a great way to use up a jar of applesauce that always seems to sit unused in my fridge! Like others, I upped the spices fourfold and used only a scant cup of sugar.