Applesauce Cake With Soft Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting Food

MOTHER'S APPLESAUCE CAKE

Ingredients:

• 3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 3 teaspoons baking soda
• ½ cup butter
• 2 cups packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 3 cups unsweetened applesauce
• ½ cup raisins
• ½ cup dates, pitted and chopped
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• ½ cup butter
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• ¼ cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Grease and flour a tube pan.
• Whisk together flour, salt, cinnamon, cloves, and soda. Set aside.
• Cream together 1/2 cup butter and 2 cups brown sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Mix in eggs. Add flour mixture into creamed mixture alternately with applesauce, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Stir in the raisins, dates, and walnuts. Pour batter into prepared pan.
• Bake in preheated oven until a tester inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, about 1 1/2 hours. Cool on wire rack.
• To make icing, melt 1/2 cup butter or margarine in a small saucepan over low heat; stir in 1 cup brown sugar. Boil for 2 minutes. Stir in milk, and continue to stir until the mixture returns to a boil. Remove from heat, and cool for 5 minutes. Beat in vanilla and confectioners' sugar. Frost cooled cake.

APPLESAUCE CAKE WITH SOFT CARAMEL CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

Ingredients:

• Applesauce Cake
• 2 tsp Rodelle vanilla
• 1 tsp Rodelle almond extract
• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 1/4 cups applesauce
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3 cup flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• Soft Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting
• 1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
• 3/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 1/2 tsp Rodelle vanilla extract
• 16 oz cream cheese, softened

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 F and prepared 3 9" cake pans.
• In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon until well mixed and no clumps are present.
• In your mixer, cream the vanilla, almond extract, butter, brown sugar and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until mixed.
• Mix in the applesauce. It is ok if it looks a little curdled at this stage.
• Stir in the dry ingredients until just mixed and then divide batter among the prepared pans.
• Bake for 30-35 minutes or until the cakes test done. Cool for 10 minutes in the pan and then tip onto wire racks to cool completely.
• You can make your cakes ahead of time. Just wrap them in plastic wrap and freeze until you are ready to decorate.
• In a saucepan, bring the sweetened condensed milk, brown sugar and butter to a boil over medium heat. Stir constantly and allow to boil for 3-5 minutes. The frosting should be like a thick pudding.
• Cool caramel mixture to room temperature. This may take a while, but you can put it in the refrigerator to speed the process if you want to. When cooled, it should be thick enough to almost hold it's shape.
• Whip cream cheese and vanilla until smooth. Add cooled caramel mixture and beat for at least a couple of minutes.
• Spread over completely cooled cake.

MY CREAM CHEESE AND APPLESAUCE FROSTING

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb cream cheese
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1/2 cup applesauce
• 1 1/2 cups icing sugar

Steps:

• With the electric mixer, cream the butter into the cream cheese.
• Add the applesauce.
• Gradually blend in the icing sugar until a nice creamy consistency is obtained.