Applesauce Cake
A moist spiced cake made with applesauce, brown sugar and cinnamon, baked in a loaf tin and dusted with icing sugar.
Photograph credit: 2026-08-02 19 22 06 An apple sauce muffin in the Mountainview section of Ewing Township,… by Famartin · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · this resized copy is shared under the same licence
Where This Goes Wrong
Stir the batter as little as you can.
Use unsweetened applesauce.
If your oven runs hot, check at 35 minutes.
Wait until the cake is cold before dusting.
Making Applesauce Cake
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Heat the oven to 180°C / 355°F (160°C / 320°F fan) and line a 900 g loaf tin.
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Mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in a bowl.
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Whisk the sugar, oil, eggs and applesauce, then fold into the dry mix with the raisins until just combined.
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Pour into the tin and bake for 40 minutes until a skewer comes out clean. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then on a rack. Dust with the icing sugar.
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What's Going On Here
Short, sharp advice: do not overmix. A cake made with applesauce is moist by nature, but beating the batter hard builds gluten, and the loaf bakes tough with tunnels inside. Stir the wet and dry ingredients together until the flour just disappears.
Use unsweetened applesauce, or make your own and leave the sugar out of it. Sweetened applesauce makes a cloying cake. The sauce replaces most of the butter, which is why the crumb stays soft for days. Measure the flour carefully. Spooned lightly into the cup and levelled, not scooped, it keeps the cake tender.
Cinnamon, nutmeg and a handful of raisins are the traditional additions. Brown sugar gives a deeper flavour than white.
Bake in a lined loaf tin until a skewer comes out clean. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out, then dust with icing sugar once cold. The cake is better the next day.
After You've Cooked It
Keeps in an airtight tin for 4 days. Freezes well for up to 2 months.
What to Serve Alongside
- Tea
- Plain yoghurt
- Whipped cream
- Custard
Nutrition per Serving
Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.
Your notes on this recipe
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .
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