Recipe of the Month

Applesauce Cake

3 Cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/4 teaspoons ground cardamom
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups packed light-brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
2 large eggs
2 cups chunky applesauce
nonstick cooking spray
confectioners' sugar (optional)
whipped cream (optional)

1) Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and cardamom.

2) In another bowl with an electric mixer, beat butter, brown sugar and honey until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. With mixer on low speed gradually add flour mixture, beat just until combined. Beat in applesauce.

3) Generously coat a nonstick 9-inch tube pan with cooking spray. Spoon batter into pan; smooth top. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with only a few moist crumbs clinging to it, 50 to 60 minutes.

4) Cool on a wire rack 10 minutes. Turn out of pan onto a cutting board or baking sheet; invert cake onto wire rack, top side up. Cool, dust with confectioners' sugar. Can serve with whipped cream.

Carol's tips (a.k.a. bloopers & thoughts)

I really like this recipe because it uses Cardamom, it's my new favorite spice. A word of caution.... if you haven't used Cardamom before when you get your new bottle of it home don't open, stick your nose right over it and take a big wiff. It's really strong, stinks and will probably make you choke. But take my word for it, it is very tasty!

Also the pan called for in this recipe is a tube pan. I tried it with a spring form bunt pan because I don't have a tube pan. I don't recommend the bunt pan because it's not tall enough.

You may want to use the bunt pan because you don't realize how much batter you really have until you have it all spooned into the bunt ban.

Then you'll think to yourself, "Wow, that really is pretty close to the top, but how much could it raise?....it couldn't be that much.....taking it out of this pan and putting it in another will really be a pain....I've made my choice I'm going to stick with it."

After it starts cooking it really does raise quite a bit and unfortunately it will be just to much for your measly spring form bunt pan. Try as it may it just can't contain the ever increasing applesauce cake batter and the batter will fall to the bottom of the oven on to the burners, resulting in a kitchen full of smoke and your smoke detectors going off.

Now in my house this happens often enough that my kids think the smoke detector is the dinner bell and so they will come running to see if they can have some cake. But if you're my sister-in-law the smoke detector will be a major pain because while you're trying to fan out your kitchen you have to answer the phone because your smoke detector is attached to a company that will call the fire-dept. if you you don't answer the phone and tell them everything is ok.

Anyway.......My point is, just use the pan the recipe calls for or a large cake pan.

And just so we're clear, my example was all hypothetically speaking of course! ;) ;)

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