As a child, my family of 7 used to drive 2 hours twice a year to visit my Uncle Bart and Aunt Ursula and various cousins. The grown ups would spend the afternoon catching up while us kiddies ran tearing into the dark woods of their back yard chasing the dog, hiding in their forbidden attic … then dining al fresco on good ole home cooking that Aunt Ursula threw together while we all watched.
Now she was a true southern cook! I still can taste her green beans with ham hocks, homemade biscuits, skillet fried chicken and gravy. I recall gazing at her in the kitchen, avidly watching her measure a handful of this and a pinch of that, no measuring cups for her! Then kneading the biscuit dough on the table and quickly cutting it into rounds with a glass, and painting the tops with a quick swipe of melted butter before popping them into the oven. I remember slicing juicy fresh strawberries for strawberry shortcake, as she whipped a luscious froth of sweetened cream by hand. Or chopping crisp stalks of freshly picked rhubarb for a pie. I can even now taste those chewy nuggets of fried chicken gizzards, that I’ve found nowhere else since.
And wow…her multi-layered, super-moist applesauce spice cake frosted with homemade applesauce…all of this wonderment without a recipe in sight! She cut, chopped, measured, mixed and whipped by hand…no electric this and that.
I’ve never seen her legendary applesauce cake anywhere else, and have attempted to capture it’s moist, delicious essence here.
Our branch of my bank offers freshly harvested, ripe apples in our lobby complimentary to our customers during the month of October.
Since we had a handful leftover, I made applesauce out of them this weekend, with very little sugar and using cider as the liquid.
These happened to be Empire apples. Their deep red, sun-ripened skins made a pink applesauce, since I left the skins on the apples when making the sauce. I processed the cooled apple mash to a fine sauce, so that I could use it for a ‘frosting’, as well as an ingredient in the cake.
Aunt Ursula’s Applesauce Cake
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
- 1 1/2 cup favorite applesauce
- 2 cups flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 cup dried cranberries (soaked in hot cider or water 15 minutes then drained)
Extra 1 1/2 cups of applesauce for the ‘frosting’.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter 9″ square baking dish.
Cream together butter and sugar in large mixing bowl until light and fluffy.
Add eggs one at a time and beat well after each.
Add applesauce and stir to combine.
Add dry ingredients and stir. Add cranberries and stir only until incorporated.
Turn batter into buttered pan and bake 40-50 minutes (depending on the shape of your pan, loaf pan will take longer), until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and dry.
Can be ‘frosted’ on top with additional applesauce to which you’ve added cinnamon to taste.
