Spiced Applesauce Cake with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

  

You know those fancy cakes with all the bells and whistles? The ones that look like they just step out of the window of a French Pâtisserie. Well, this doesn't look like one of those, but don't let that fool you. If you shut your eyes and take a bite, you'll think you're in Paris.


Spiced Applesauce Cake with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
slightly adapted from Gourmet

For the Cake:
250g plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
Pinch nutmeg
115g unsalted butter, at room temperature
195g light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups unsweetened applesauce*

*NOTE:  All the store-bought applesauce I found were sweetened and I had lots of apples so I made my own.You can get the recipe for unsweetened applesauce here. Or you can use store-bought, if you can find an unsweetened one.

For the Frosting:
140g cream cheese, at room temperature
40g unsalted butter, at room temperature
120g icing sugar, sifted
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Make the Cake:
Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease a 20cm x 20cm cake pan with cooking oil spray and line the base with baking paper.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the applesauce and beat until incorporated. The mixture may look a little curdled at this point, but don't sweat it will be okay. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices. Add this mixture to the egg mixture in the mixer bowl and mix at low speed until just incorporated.

Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and bake for 35 - 40 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave the cake to cool in the pan for 15 minutes before turning it out onto the wire rack to cool completely.

Make the Frosting:
Beat all of the ingredients together with an electric mixer until smooth and fluffy. Spread the frosting over the cooled cake.