Honey Applesauce (Cup)Cake(s), part II

Sunday, February 08, 2009

Yesterday I posted the first of a three part recipe for a locally sweetened cake. Actually, I opted for cupcakes, but a cake can be made from this recipe too. I started with a basic 1-2-3-4 cake recipe and then adapted it wildly to include my two star ingredients, applesauce and honey. This is what I came up with (I tried to make a recipe that could easily be doubled):

Honey Applesauce Cake
preheat oven to 350˚F

1 ½ cups flour (local white pastry flour)
2 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt

½ stick unsalted butter – room temperature (1/4 cup)
1/3 cup honey
1 egg yolk (white to follow)
1 cup applesauce
½ tsp vanilla

½ cup milk

1 beaten egg white (soft peaks)

whisk together dry ingredients and set aside
separate egg
with electric mixer beat butter until creamy (about 1 minute)
add honey, beat for another minute
add egg yolk, beat for one minute (if multiplying the recipe, add egg yolks one at a time, beating for one minute each)
mix in applesauce until well blended and then vanilla

alternately, starting with flour mixture, add in flour and milk. do this by hand so as not to over beat ingredients

mix in half of the beaten egg white. fold in the second half.

divide batter amongst 12 cupcake liners or pour into one 9” cake pan.

bake cupcakes for approx. 20 minutes, cake for approx. 30 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.

As you can see from the picture above, they sank a bit. I don’t know why, and, frankly, I don’t really care as long as they taste good! And with the honey vanilla seven minute frosting, who will know the difference!

See how pretty they look? (frosting recipe to come….)