SPICY GINGER APPLESAUCE CAKE WITH CREAM CHEESE FROSTING (gift kink)
The impetus for making this for my family Hanukkah dinner was finding a jar of somewhat aged home-canned Gravenstein applesauce that I figured was better for baking than eating as-is. (Plus, I love anything ginger.) I halved the recipe and baked it in an 8-inch-square pan. I made the cake as written, but instead of using the frosting recipe, I browned 2 ounce of butter, let it solidify, and whipped it with 4 ounces of cream cheese and couple of spoonfuls of maple butter from Trader Joe’s. This was dead easy, and delicious with the ginger cake. The cake mellowed in flavor from the firey ginger batter to the baked cake when I served it a couple of days post-baking, and even more so in the ensuing days — I had the last bit today, four days after baking, and it stayed perfectly moist thanks to the oil and applesauce — becoming a lovely spice cake, very seasonally appropriate.
