Let Them Eat Cake

 So what do you do?  You've made so much applesauce this season that you finally got a little TOO creative with a recipe and adapted a batch right out of the edible zone.  Tooooo sweet.  Maybe if you'd left out the honey, or skipped the red hots...Whatever the culprit, in the end the sauce was make-me-shudder sweet, and no one would eat it.  Oh, they would taste it, but the taste was quickly followed by a surprised (but it's usually so good!) smile and a quick return to the mashed potatoes and gravy. 

So does the leftover applesauce bowl sit lonely in the refrigerator until that film of mold shows that at least IT doesn't play favorites?  Not necessarily.  Not for the creative cook.  If they won't eat applesauce, then let them eat cake.




My baseline recipe for applesauce cake came from my old Better Homes and Gardens cookbook.  (Surely by now you've figured out the "you" who made the syrupy sauce is me.)  This was the recipe:  1/2 C butter and 2 C sugar creamed together.  Here is the only part of the recipe I adapted.  Plenty of sweetness waited to be added with that applesauce, so I only used 1 C of sugar.  The rest was straightforward.
Add 2 eggs, beating well after each. 
Sift together 2 1/2 C all-purpose flour, 1 1/2 tsp soda, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, and 1/4 tsp allspice (I used cloves instead.  OK, I also stirred with a spoon rather than sifting, but not because I'm a sifter snob.  If I ever get a crank sifter I think I'd happily use it.  It looks to be much fun!)
Add dry ingredients alternately with 1 1/2 C applesauce to the creamed mixture.  Add 1/2 C raisins and/or1/2 C chopped pecans if desired.  Bake in 9x13 pan for 45 minutes at 350 degrees.

Of course, I needed to sample it myself before subjecting anyone else to it just in case I'd failed again.  My assessment:  it turned out beautifully, just right for a mid-afternoon snack when drizzled with a little honey and served up with a cup of Joe.  A great accompaniment to my Christmas card reading break.

Morale of the story:  don't be quick to call a failure a failure...maybe it's just a pitstop on the way to something great!
Happy resurrecting!