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Applesauce Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
For The Cake
  • 2 C. all-purpose flour
  • 1 T.ground cinnamon
  • 1 T. ground ginger
  • 1 1/2 t. kosher salt
  • 2 t. baking soda
  • 2 eggs beaten
  • 1/2 C. sugar
  • 1/2 C. buttermilk or plain yogurt I used buttermilk
  • 1 1/2 C. unsweetened applesauce I used homemade made in my Instant Pot
  • 1/2 C. canola or other neutral oil I used grapeseed oil
  • Chopped pecans
For The Frosting
  • 1/2 C. unsalted butter at room temperature
  • 1 pound cream cheese at room temperature
  • 1/2 t. salt
  • 1 1/2 t. vanilla paste or extract
  • 6 C. powdered sugar
  • 2 T. milk or cream
Instructions
For The Cake
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and prepare a 9-inch round cake pan by greasing it and putting a round of parchment paper in the bottom of the pan.
  2. Whisk the flour, cinnamon, ginger, salt and baking soda together in a large bowl. To the flour mixture, add eggs, sugar, buttermilk, applesauce and oil. Whisk until all the ingredients are combined. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the surface of the batter.
  3. Bake the cake for about 55 minutes at 350 degrees F. (Mine was baked at about 45 minutes, so you need to watch your cake carefully.) When it is done, the cake will be firm to the touch. You can further check for doneness by using a wooden toothpick or skewer inserted into the middle of the cake. The skewer should come out clean. Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool to room temperature.
  4. Invert the cake onto your counter. Remove the parchment. Invert the cake again (onto your serving platter).
  5. Frost the cake with the cream cheese frosting. Press the finely-chopped pecans around the edges of the cake.
For The Frosting
  1. Cream the butter and the cream cheese together in a stand mixer. Add in the salt and vanilla. Gradually, add the powdered sugar to the mixture with the mixer set on a slow speed. Once you have the powdered sugar mixed into the butter/cream cheese mixture, turn your mixer on to high speed and whip for at least 7 minutes, occasionally scraping down the sids of the bowl. You can add the milk or cream one tablespoon at a time to thin the frosting if you need to.
  2. Cook's Note: The cream cheeese frosting recipe makes far more frosting than you will need for this cake. Reserve the extra for another use.