Applesauce Cake

Applesauce Cake

You can see the cake pulled away from the side a bit. 
This recipe is attributed to Dena - my great-aunt, the sister of my mother's mother.  I found it a little curious - in the 21st century dietitians recommend replacing shortening in recipes with applesauce.  This recipe uses both together!  It's mostly like a spice cake with raisins.  I found it a bit dry.  We put canned icing on it.  I had a can of Apple Cider icing I got on a post-Halloween clearance sale that I thought went nice with this cake.  The white icing fan in my house put white icing on his.  The picky eater decided he liked it plain! 
This is how I left my cooktop on Monday night when I went to bed.  As much pre-measured or laid otu as possible.  Tuesday would be another night when we didn't get a family dinner time and I wouldn't even be home until after 8 p.m. so I planned to bake the cake in the morning and let the guys enjoy it when they were home together after the kid's band practice.
I have never seen a recipe that wanted the pan "generously dusted with flour".  I felt like it was way too clumpy so I tried to spread some around with a pastry brush but it really didn't work well.  I figured we might be brushing flour off our cake bottom but it really wasn't bad at all.
Since I used natural sugar there were quite a few large grains that didn't go through the strainer.  Being sugar that would be mixed with liquid and baked I figured melting wouldn't be a problem so I dumped them out of the strainer and into the mix.
I mixed in the sink to reduce the mess - just like my momma taught me.
I was a little surprised that the raisins were not folded in but instead subjected to mixing beaters for 4 minutes - but they held up fine.
1 egg, unbeaten
The batter reminded me of chocolate chip cookie dough - not quite as thick.
I put it in the oven for 52 minutes and went to take a shower.  When time was up I used a cake tester to test for doneness.  The pick came out clean so it was done!  (P.S. - I won the pick in a cake decorating contest at the library- not something I think I would have ever purchased for myself.)
 It looked like a big, square, chocolate chip muffin.  I really didn't care for the cake, especially without frosting - it seems a bit dry.

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