Applesauce cake ~ A great way to kick start the new year

Happy New Year!!!!

Been thinking that I should bake something on new year day so that I can get my momentum back in baking. Has been a slack year for year 2012. A bit ashamed for not taking my baking more seriously. After all, I really like to bake and baking makes me happy.. 

Suddenly have an urged to do something apple-ish, so I went to get like 14 apples from my local wet market and started making applesauce. I got my applesauce recipe from Laura Vitale. You can go to her website on applesauce to see how I made mine. 

My first attempt on coming up with a recipe so I am a bit worried in the beginning that it might turned out wrong. But all my worries were for naught when all my colleagues said the cake was deli-cious! 

Some of my colleagues asked for the recipe so here it goes:

Ingredients: 

For the cake:

1. 3 cups of all purpose flour
2. 3 teaspoon baking soda
3. 1.5 teaspoon of baking powder
4. 0.5 teaspoon of salt
5. 0.5 teaspoon of cinnamon powder 
6. 0.5 teaspoon of five spice powder (you can use nutmeg and cloves but I just happen to run out of them, so I substitute it with five spice powder and it turned out pretty well)
7. 1 large orange zest
8. 3 large eggs
9. 170g of unsalted butter at room temperature
10. 2 teaspoon of vanilla extract 
11. 2 cups of apple sauce (you can get the recipe here) 
12. 0.5 cup of milk
13. 0.25 cup of orange juice (basically the juice from the orange of your zest)
14. 0.25 cup of apple juice (you can substitute it with orange juice or milk)

For the applesauce frosting:

1. 1 Cup of applesauce
2. 1.5 Cup of sifted icing sugar
3. 0.25 Cup of butter
4. 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
5. 0.5 Cup of heavy whipping cream (I used the whipping cream with plant extract for better hold)

Directions

For the cake:

1. Pre-heat oven to 180C. Grease 2 9 inch pans with non-stick cooking oil and line them with parchment paper. Set aside. 
2. Mixed the first 6 ingredients into a medium bowl. Set aside. 
3. In a stand alone mixer (with peddler attachment) or a hand mixer, beat the butter till soft and fluffy under medium speed. Around 1-2 min. 
4. Add the sugar and continue beating for another 2-3 min till the mixture become pale and fluffier. 
5. Add the vanilla extract, beat, and add the egg one at a time. Continue mixing till they come together.
6. Changing the mixer speed to low, add in the applesauce and ensure complete mixing. 
7. Add in the flour and the liquids at intervals. Flour - milk - flour - apple & orange juice - flour. Do not over mix else you will get a bread like consistency. Once the mixing is almost done, stop mixing. Use a hand spatula to mix in any flour at the side into the batter. 
8. Evenly distribute the cake batter in the 2 pans and ensure that the cake is leveled. Put it into the oven and bake for 27-32 min (depending on your oven). It is ready when a toothpick goes in without any crumbs coming out with it. Let the cake cool completely before you frost the cake

For the frosting:

1. In your mixer, beat the butter till soft and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract and applesuace. Continue beating till well mixed.
2. Slowly add in the sifted icing sugar (1 tablespoon at a time) 
3. Changed the paddler attachment into whisk attachment and add in the whipping cream bit by bit. Whisk from slow to fast and check for consistency. If the frosting is still too watery, add more whipping cream and start from slow speed to fast and check for consistency again. Once the desired consistency has been reached - the frosting is able to form stiff peaks, stop adding the whipping cream and placed it in the refrigerator to store until you need them. 

Putting the cake together:

1. Trimmed the cakes till you have a flat top
2. Add in the frosting on top of one cake and stacked the other on top of the cake. Once completed, you can coat the coat with a layer of the frosting all over the cake. You may proceed with adding decorations according as the celebrations call for.

The Cake after a layer of frosting.. Looks a bit pale.. hahah

What the cake looks like inside.. The apple bits are all over the cake! ^.^

TA-DA!!!

The end result with the decorations - White chocolate wall with some nice fondant figurines. 

I must say that because I used applesauce, the apple taste was not that strong. My colleagues could taste the orange and the spice more. Maybe I used add some real apples as well.. Maybe at the base to increase the apple taste. This will be another time where I decide to make another apple cake. In the meantime, I will continue to back other stuff... Maybe something oriental first.. haha

Nonetheless.. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!