If you love fruit cakes, you have found a great recipe. This Applesauce Cake recipe is an easy one to make. You will enjoy a delicious apple dessert made in the comfort of your kitchen.
The Amish Applesauce Cake is great as a coffee cake or dessert served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. The Amish Applesauce cake is a common dessert among the Pennsylvania Dutch.
As the leaves begin to turn color and all the trees are laden with beautiful fruits, it is the right time to call my team to convert crates of tart apples into delicious apple sauce for canning.
Apple Sauce Recipe
My mother fed all her tots with lots of apple sauce, fortunately, I never grew to dislike it as my other siblings did.
As long as I spiced it up and made various variations, apple sauce remains on top of my list of spreads. It is easy to make, all you need is the patience to peel a heap of apples.
I use a variety of apples in equal ratios to achieve a great flavor in my apple sauce.
Once you have peeled and cored the apples, chop and bring them to a simmer on medium heat with some sugar and spice. (I will share a recipe below)
Peeling the apples can be laborious if you are making a big batch. I usually invite my children to help out. We play a game to see who will peel the longest peel!
That makes the process fun. The winner gets to choose the dessert that we shall make from the apple sauce!
Amish Strawberry tapioca pudding Recipe. Click to Read.
Why Amish AppleSauce Cake is special
Some of the Amish who live in Lancaster county own large tracks of farmland and grow a lot of what they eat.
Apple picking at local orchards is one of our favorite fall family activities. My boys enjoy wheeling each other on the cute wagons along the orchard alleys.
After several rounds, we fill our crates with apples, and everyone is ready for a cider drink!
I bought an Amish and Mennonite Community cookbook and a beautiful patchwork quilt at an Amish Farm sale. Amish recipes are among my favorites because of their ingredients that are so easy to find and the recipes encourage us to use up farm produce such as milk, potatoes, apples, and peanuts just to mention a few.
Most of the ingredients in the Amish recipes are pantry staples.
Amish Culinary Heritage
The Amish have a strong culinary influence that is handed down from one generation to another. Because of their culture of home visits every Sunday, their women have practiced and perfected their recipes over the years.
Most of their recipes are influenced by their European heritage. The Amish came from Europe and settled in the United States and are careful to preserve their traditions, religious practices, and culture.
For instance the applesauce used to make the apple cake is inspired by the famous German Applesauce recipe. In recent years, many have left the conservative group of people, interacting with the rest of the world.
The ex-Amish have shared a lot of their culture including their recipes preserved for many generations.
This Amish Applesauce cake recipe is quick to make especially if you had prepared applesauce ahead of time. It takes a short time to cream the butter or shortening, add in the wet ingredients followed by the dry ingredients.
You do not need to be a skillful baker to whip up this easy, delicious Amish Applesauce Cake.
I am elated to share this recipe that we adopted and tweaked from the Amish and Mennonite Cookbook. Let us look at the ingredients that make this decadent cake in detail.
Also, check out this: Amish Apple Fritters Recipe.
Ingredients And Substitutions
2 cups of Applesauce
Apple is a sweet fruit sauce made by cooking fresh chopped apples in sugar and spices and a little apple juice or apple cider. You can make your own or buy it at the grocery stores.
3 Eggs
Eggs add moisture and richness to the cake batter.
1 cup Butter
Butter is rich in fats, moisturizing the cake as well as enhancing the overall flavor of the applesauce cake. Butter can be substituted by shortening or vegetable oil.
3 cups All purpose flour
Forms the cake batter base, All purpose works perfectly alright but could be substituted with a cake mix.
1 cup Brown sugar
Brown sugar adds a depth of sweetness to the recipe and a sweet molasses flavor as well.
½ cup Granulated sugar
Sweetens the applesauce cake batter.
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
Baking Soda leavens the cake batter making the cake rise.
2 teaspoon Baking Powder
Baking powder leavens the cake batter making it rise too.
½ teaspoon Salt
Blends with all the flavors in the applesauce cake
1 teaspoon Nutmeg
Nutmeg’s warm, nutty, and woody flavor tastes great in this apple sauce cake.
1 teaspoon ground Cinnamon
Cinnamon and apples blend perfectly in any dish. Cinnamon has a distinct flavor that elevates the level of deliciousness of the cake.
½ teaspoon Cloves
This strong aromatic spice is added in small amounts to blend with the other spices in the cake batter. You could substitute it with cardamon spice.
1 cup Raisins
Raisins are a great addition, enriching the cake with a sweet fruit flavor. You could substitute raisins with dried cranberries or sultanas.
½ cup chopped Walnuts
Nuts introduce a crunchy texture and nutty flavor balancing with fruity flavors in the cake. Pecans or dark chocolate chips greatly substitute walnuts in the recipe.
Equipment
- Mixing bowls
- Handheld electric mixers
- Measuring cups and spoons
- Baking pan (Bundt pan)
- Oven
- Rubber Spatula
- Wire Cooling rack
Frosting the Amish Apple Sauce Cake
The Amish Applesauce Cake is a beautiful blend of a fruit cake and a spice cake. Traditionally, fruit cakes are usually frosted using hard icing or fondant icing. Since I am not a fan of hard icing, I decided to make a simple version of royal icing.
- 1 cup of powdered sugar
- Juice from 1 and a half lemon
Combine the two ingredients in a small mixing bowl. It will you less than 2 minutes to make this simple icing. Using a spoon
drizzle the icing over the cooled Amish Applesauce cake creating beautiful patterns.
Homemade Applesauce Recipe
This homemade applesauce is extremely simple and delicious. You will be hooked.
You will need
- 8 large apples
- 1 cup of water
- 1 cup of cider or unsweetened apple juice
- 4 tablespoon sugar
- 2 tablespoon lemon juice
How to make Homemade Applesauce
- Peel and core apples, and chop them into small-sized pieces. Toss them in lemon juice to keep them from oxidizing and turning brown.
- In a medium saucepan over medium cook the apples in water, apple cider, and sugar over medium heat.
- Cook for about 15 minutes until the apples are very soft. Crush in a blender or with a potato masher to form a smooth sauce with a few chunks.
- Let the apple sauce cool, and pour it into sterilized jars. This recipe yields a 1-quart jar of applesauce.
FAQ: Amish Applesauce Cake
You probably over-mixed your cake batter. Resist the urge as soon as the ingredients are mixed well. Over-mixing activates the gluten making your baked good rubbery.
This cake is rich in moisture and might grow molds if left at room temperature for a long time. This moist cake stores well in the fridge in an air-tight container.
Pro Tips
Sinking fruits and nuts
To keep your fruits and nuts from sinking in the cake batter, remember to coat them with a little flour before folding them into the cake batter.
This step will see that your fruits and nuts are evenly distributed in the cake batter. The result is a beautiful cake dotted with fruits and nuts.
Measure correctly
Using the scoop and level method to avoid excess flour in the cake batter.
Excess flour than is required will affect the moisture in your cake making it dry and crumbly.
Amish Apple Sauce Cake
Ingredients
- 2 cups 2 cups of Applesauce
- 3 3 Eggs
- 1 cup Butter
- 3 cups All purpose flour
- 1 cup Brown sugar
- ½ cup Granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
- 2 teaspoon Baking Powder
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- 1 teaspoon Nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon Cloves
- 1 cup Raisins
- ½ cup Chopped Walnuts
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 F, and grease your preferred cake tin. In this recipe, we used a bundt pan to bake our delicious applesauce cake.
- In a large mixing bowl, using an electric mixer cream butter until light and fluffy, add sugar and the brown sugar. Beat at medium speed until the ingredients are fully incorporated.
- Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat at a higher speed. Lower the speed and add the apple sauce. Mix until all the wet ingredients are thoroughly mixed.
- In a separate bowl, sift in the dry ingredient: the flour, spices, leavening agents, and salt.
- Add the mixture of dry ingredients into the bowl containing wet ingredients one cup at a time. Scrape down the bowl and ensure the ingredients are mixed forming a smooth cake batter.
- Flour the raisins and chopped walnuts, pour them into the cake batter, and fold them in using a rubber spatula.
- Pour the cake batter into the prepared baking tin and bake for 55 minutes
- A wooden skewer, inserted in the middle of the cake should come out clean. The center of the cake should spring back when gently touched.
- Let the cake cool completely on a wire rack before frosting as desired.
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