Applesauce Cake

I don't like those little individual servings of applesauce. I don't like them because they are so watery. So when I'm jonsing for some applesauce, I have to buy the big jar. Then I eat a little of it and that's enough and I don't know what to do with the rest.

I read somewhere that you could use applesauce in place of oil in any cake. But how often do you make cake? Then I had it, autumn is eminent, why not make an applesauce cake? I used Google Blog Search to find a recipe and came up with a golden ticket. As luck would have it, I had some extra buttermilk lying around too!

Unfortunately, I made an error in cooking time..or perhaps there is a misprint in the recipe? Either way, this is what happened. I cooked th cake in an 8x8 glass cake pan for the listed time, I tested it with a toothpick and it came out clean. I let the cake cool. Late into the evening--around 11, I decided to cut the cake into squares so that I could bring it to work and not eat it all myself. The edges were done, but unfortunately, the middle was not. It was completely raw, but it had been cooling for so long. I salvaged the edges and the bottom and threw the remainder away.

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. allspice
½ tsp. nutmeg
¼ tsp. ground cloves
½ tsp. salt
½ cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
½ tsp. vanilla
1 cup applesauce
¼ cup buttermilk

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease and flour the bottom of an 8x8 pan (next time I will use 2 regular circle pans)
2. Sift together the first seven ingredients
3. Beat together butter and sugar until fluffy.
4. Add eggs one at a time. Add vanilla and applesauce.
5. The mixture at this point is very wet. Alternate flour mixture and buttermilk with the mixer at very low speed. Be sure to start and end with flour.
6. Bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.

This was a big hit at the office. Thanks for the recipe, Kristen!