Applesauce cake with cinnamon cream cheese icing

This year we had another lovely autumn weekend away in a big Cornish farmhouse with a bunch of old friends from art college.  I made this cake using up a bowl of homemade applesauce from last weekend’s roast pork Sunday lunch.  It was great as a dessert after a big meal of Lu’s beef brisket chilli, but was still a lovely and moist cake for eating the next day, sitting around in pyjamams in front of a big fire with good company and lots of pots of tea!

Ingredients
8 oz self-raising flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
¾ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
4 oz unsalted butter, softened
7 oz light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
13 oz unsweetened applesauce
2 oz walnuts, toasted, cooled, and chopped

For the icing
5 oz cream cheese, softened
3 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
¼ tsp vanilla extract
4 oz icing sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

Method

1. Preheat oven to 175°C and grease and line an 8” square cake tin.
2. Beat the butter, brown sugar, and vanilla with an electric mixer at high speed until pale and fluffy.
3. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition, and then beat in the applesauce. 
4. Sift in the flour, baking powder, salt, and spice and at low speed and mix until just combined.
5. Gently fold in the walnuts.
6. Spread the batter evenly in the tin and bake for about 35 to 40 minutes until golden and a cake tester inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin for 15 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
7. To make the icing, beat the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla with an electric mixer at high speed until fluffy.  Sift the icing sugar and cinnamon over cream cheese mixture, then beat at medium speed until incorporated. Spread over the top of cooled cake.

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen