Applesauce Cake Recipe - Cooking Classy (2024)

Published October 9, 2021. Updated May 17, 2023

An amazinglydelicious, old fashioned Applesauce Cake recipe! It’s a super soft and moist cake, similar to carrot cake but rather with a light apple flavor and plenty of autumn spices!

An Easy Applesauce Cake Recipe

Who can resist a simple, flavorful, homestyle cake just like Grandma would have made? This cake is just that!

It’s brimming with applesauce, generously speckled with warm spices throughout, there’s just enough sweetness, and it’s all balanced with a rich cream cheese frosting to polish it off.

It’s an autumn cake worthy of celebrations, bringing to the holiday dinner parties, nice for gifting, or just a great applesauce snack cake to have in the fridge to enjoy after dinner throughout the week.

You’ll find it’s so good in fact that it really doesn’t even need a frosting if you aren’t feeling up to it. That’s right, a cake so good you can even skip the frosting!

A luscious cake that will have you savoring every tempting bite!

Watch the Video!

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Applesauce Cake Recipe Ingredients

FOR THE CAKE

• 2 1/4 cups (318 g) all-purpose flour (scoop and level to measure)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ground allspice
• 3/4 cup (150 g) granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup (100 g) brown sugar (break up any clumps with fingertips)
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups unsweetened applesauce
• 3/4 cup (175 ml) vegetable oil or canola oil
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

FOR THE CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

• 8 oz. cream cheese, nearly at room temperature
• 6 Tbsp unsalted butter, soft
• 3 cups (360 g) powdered sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

See below for printable recipe in recipe box.

How to Make Applesauce Cake

1. Heat oven, prepare baking dish: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 13 by 9-inch baking dish with non-stick cooking spray.
2. Whisk dry ingredients: In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice for 30 seconds. Make a well in the center and set aside.
3. Separately beat sugars and eggs: To a separate large mixing bowl, add granulated sugar, brown sugar, and eggs. Using an electric hand mixer, beat on medium speed until fairly pale and fluffy, 2 minutes.
4. Add remaining liquids: Add applesauce, vegetable oil and vanilla extract to sugar mixture and blend with hand mixer until combined.
5. Combine wet and dry mixtures: Pour applesauce mixture into well in flour mixture, then gently fold and stir mixture just until there’s no longer streaks or pockets of flour.
6. Add to baking dish: Pour mixture into prepared baking dish. Wiggle pan to level batter out even.
7. Bake until set: Bake in preheated oven until toothpick inserted into center comes out free of batter (a moist crumb or two is fine), about 30 to 40 minutes.
8. Cool completely: Let cake cool on a wire rack (to speed up cooling you can cool in the fridge).

How to Make the Cream Cheese Frosting

1. Add ingredients to mixing bowl: Add cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar and vanilla to a large mixing bowl.
2. Beat until fluffy: Using an electric hand mixer (with clean beater blades), blend mixture on low speed until combined. Then increase speed to high and whip for several minutes until light and fluffy.
3. Frost cake: Spread frosting over cooled cake then cut into slices.

How to Store Applesauce Spice Cake

• Due to it’s high moisture content and cream cheese frosting applesauce cake is best stored in the fridge.
• We actually love this cake cold and it can be enjoyed straight from the fridge, but if preferred you can bring to room temperature before serving.
• Another option is to freeze the unfrosted cake, wrapped in foil, for up to 3 months in an airtight container. Thaw then frost, slice and serve.

Can it be made without a hand mixer?

• Yes, if you don’t have a hand mixer you can also make this cake by hand using a whisk.
• You’ll just need to whisk the egg and sugar by hand for about 4 minutes until it’s fluffier.

Helpful Tips for the Best Applesauce Cake

• Applesauce notes: Don’t use sweetened applesauce since it has added sugars and might make the cake a bit too sweet.
• I like to look for an applesauce without added water for more apple flavor.
• Use smooth, not chunky applesauce.
• Weigh ingredients: If you have a kitchen scale, I highly recommend using it for this recipe (and almost all baking recipes when possible). I love this one HERE.
• If you don’t have a scale, be sure to use the scoop and level method for measuring the flour as that is what I used to make this recipe.
• Quick chill frosting: With cream cheese frosting, I like to freeze it in a few 3 minute intervals (stir between each) before frosting the cake so it’s a little more firm.

Possible Variations

• Nuts: If preferred, you could add chopped nuts (pecans or walnuts) or raisins to the batter. Or finished the frosted cake with chopped nuts.
• Frosting: Try a different frosting. A caramel (you won’t need to use up the whole batch) or browned butter frosting would be other tasty options.
• Spices: Include other spices such as cloves and cardamom for an even more well spiced flavor.
• If you don’t have all the spices listed you can use 1 Tbsp pumpkin pie spice.
• Apples: To add more apple flavor, add freeze dried apple slices that have been pulverized to a fine powder to the frosting (use a few tablespoons powder).
• Substitute butter: I’ve also made this cake with melted butter in place of the vegetable oil and it’s another delicious option (I just love the super moist and slightly fluffier crumb when using the vegetable oil option).

More Tempting Apples Desserts to Try

• Apple Crisp
• Apple Galette
• Apple Upside Down Cake
• Dutch Apple Pie
• Easy Caramel Apples