Applesauce Cake With Caramel Glaze Recipe on Food52 (2024)

Serves a Crowd

by: Merrill Stubbs

October11,2022

4.6

45 Ratings

Applesauce Cake With Caramel Glaze Recipe on Food52 (1)

Prep time 30 minutes
Cook time 50 minutes
Serves 10

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Author Notes

Having made a giant batch of applesauce this fall (unpeeled apples, a pinch of salt, lemon juice, and nothing else), I realized last week that what was left would probably ferment if I didn't do something with it, and quick. So, I decided to whip up one of my favorite desserts, a spiced applesauce cake. Previously, I've made a fresh ginger glaze for it that tastes delicious but sort of curdles and doesn't look all that pretty. This time, I found inspiration in a rich, sweet, Southern-stye caramel icing from Craig Claiborne's New York Times Cookbook, which I've made a few times for other cakes. But I wanted a true glaze, not an icing, so off to the interwebs I went.

Imagine my delight when I came across the perfect recipe on the blog of our very own TheRunawaySpoon! I adapted the measurements slightly, as I found I needed a little less powdered sugar to keep my glaze runny enough to drizzle, and it turned out to be the perfect complement to this tender, spiced and just slightly sweet cake. Thank you, TheRunawaySpoon, for your help.

Note: If you're serving this cake to demanding or hyper-observant guests (What? Did I say that?), you may want to glaze the cake right on the plate you plan to use to serve it, forgoing the rack. As soon the glaze has even the slightest chance to set, it will crack if you try to transfer the cake from the rack to a serving plate. —Merrill Stubbs

Test Kitchen Notes

What's one of the best things you can do after hauling a bunch of freshly picked apples home from the orchard? Make a bunch of homemade applesauce, of course! Then what's the best thing you can do with all of that applesauce? Make this amazing applesauce cake, of course! This is one of our favorite fall-forward cakes that you can also definitely make with store-bought applesauce if that's what you have on hand, but homemade puts it over the top. The cake is super-easy to put together: Simply cream the eggs with sugar, add the applesauce, oil, vanilla, fold into the dry ingredients, then let the cake bake away in the oven. The glaze takes a little more accurate timing, but TheRunawaySpoon, who developed the recipe, gives great visual cues and you should have no problem getting it to the perfect consistency. It's what helps make this recipe a showstopper of a dessert. But if you don't have the time or don't feel like making the glaze, the cake is wonderful all on its own. Simply dust with powdered sugar before serving.

You'll love the taste and texture, as well as the fact it's both comforting and sweet. Per the comments, the cake is also very forgiving with spice substitutions, and many have added chopped apples to the batter, which gives it even more fall-like flavor. One even used cranberry sauce instead of applesauce to great success! Feel free to experiment with what works best for you and let us know how it turns out. —The Editors

Test Kitchen-Approved

What You'll Need

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Applesauce Cake With CaramelGlaze

Ingredients

Cake
Unsalted butter, for the pan
2 cupsall-purpose flour, plus more for the pan
2 teaspoonsground cinnamon
1 ¹/₂ teaspoonsbaking soda
1 teaspoonground ginger
1 teaspoonkosher salt
¹/₄ teaspoonfinely ground black pepper
¹/₄ teaspoonground allspice
2 large eggs
1 cupgranulated sugar
¹/₂ cuppacked light brown sugar
1 ¹/₂ cupsunsweetened applesauce
²/₃ cupvegetable oil
1 teaspoonpure vanilla extract

Caramel Glaze
¹/₂ cuppacked light brown sugar
¹/₃ cupheavy cream, plus more as needed
4 tablespoonsunsalted butter, cut into chunks
¹/₄ teaspoonkosher salt
³/₄ cupsifted powdered sugar, plus more as needed

Directions

Make the cake: Heat the oven to 350°F. Butter and flour a 12-cup Bundt pan. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, ginger, salt, black pepper, and allspice. In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the eggs, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until light and airy. Mix in the applesauce, oil, and vanilla until smooth.
Using a spatula, fold in the dry ingredients, being careful not to overmix. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 45 minutes, until a tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool for 10 minutes in the pan set on a wire rack before turning it out and letting it cool completely on the rack—make sure the cake isn't at all warm before you make the glaze.
Make the glaze: If desired, place a piece of foil or parchment under the wire rack to catch any drips before you start the glaze. In a medium saucepan, combine the brown sugar, cream, butter, and salt and set over medium heat. Bring to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly, and boil for 1 minute exactly. Remove from the heat.
Let cool for a couple of minutes, then gradually whisk in the powdered sugar until you have a thick but pourable consistency (you may not need all of the sugar). If the mixture seems too thick, add a splash of cream to thin it out a little. Immediately pour the glaze over the cake, moving slowly and evenly to cover as much surface area as possible. Let the glaze set before serving.

Tags:

Bundt Cake
Cake
American
Serves a Crowd
Thanksgiving
Fall
Dessert

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139 Reviews

Jane December 14, 2023

Love this cake. Has anyone made it with gf flour?

Peggy M. November 7, 2022

Great cake because it is easy and has excellent easy results! So the brittle glaze is easily fixed with a pinch of Cream Tartare before boiling. The glaze doesn’t shatter after cooling and is smooth and delicious with the cake. definitely a keeper for this family!

DickOz November 10, 2022

Great tip to use cream of tartar to keep the glaze from hardening!

Elizabeth November 4, 2022

This cake is just out of this world. It's a great recipe to have around if you need to make something quickly. It is great even without the glaze. Not too sweet, lovely apple flavor with a little spice, moist, perfect.

Susan D. November 3, 2022

I just made this cake for my art class gang, we take turns being snack-mom’s so we have weekly goodies for the 3 hour class. I love that I get that chance to bake, sometimes something new. This looked easy enough and sounded delicious. I subbed Bob’s RedMill 1:1 since we have a number of GF folks. Honestly it was so moist and delicious I would never know it GF! What a beautiful fall cake! Can’t wait to bring it to class tomorrow, this is a definite keeper.

Ruth October 30, 2022

Interesting. Very similar to one my mom used to make, recipe from the Farm Journal cookbook. This one is sweeter, I think, and uses ginger. The FJ recipe uses nutmeg, cloves, and unsweetened cocoa powder. You can't taste the chocolate, but it gives a deeper, richer flavor underneath. It's a great fall recipe, whichever one you use.

Fran H. October 31, 2022

The recipe I used to use also had a small amount of cocoa powder and I agree, one couldn't specifically taste it but it make a difference which was wonderful. It wasn't a FJ recipe but was a relic from one of mom's old Spry cookbooks... now I need to search for it again because it's been years since I've made it.

Plum P. October 19, 2022

I’ve made this cake several times. It’s very easy and very delicious. It’s also quite adaptable. You can bake it in a 9x13, reduce the baking time. You can use store bought applesauce. I’ve even made it with pumpkin purée instead of applesauce. Sometimes I put a cream cheese frosting on instead. It’s always moist and delicious and a hit with adults and kids alike.

Russtipher December 26, 2021

I made this for Christmas. It was my first baking experience. I couldn't be happier with the result. My wife loves it, and so do I.

Pamela T. November 1, 2021

I made this cake last year and loved it, but had forgotten to add my review. I bought apples to make applesauce and this cake sprang to mind for a repeat performance. Though wile the applesauce was roasting and I started to gather the cake ingredients, I realized that 1) I only had dark brown sugar, 2) I had run out of vegetable oil and 3) we were also out of cream. For anyone else faced with this dilemma but you are still desperately wanting cake, you might be interested to know that grape seed oil seemed to be a reasonable substitution for vegetable oil and dark brown sugar seemed to deepen the spice notes (if my memory of the year prior is reliable) and lastly, using sour cream instead of cream for the glaze was very tasty, with a bit of added tanginess that worked with the overall caramelized sweet profile.