Reviewed: Nov. 3, 2009

Pretty good but wayyy too much sugar. Even my Mom, a self-confessed sugar addict, deemed it a bit too sweet. I skipped the frosting and added raisins to the batter instead of walnuts. It's a nice moist cake, and very attractive too, especially when baked in a bundt pan.

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400luv

Cooking Level: Intermediate

Living In: Rehoboth, Massachusetts, USA

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Reviewed: Nov. 2, 2009

I loved the taste of this cake. It had just the right amount of spice and the frosting was out of this world! The only negative was that my cake did not rise, it got to be only the height of a bar-type cake. Did anyone else have this problem?

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Debra Steeb

Cooking Level: Expert

Home Town: Sheboygan, Wisconsin, USA

Living In: Belgium, Wisconsin, USA

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Reviewed: Oct. 23, 2009

This was good. I replaced half the white flour with whole wheat pastry flour (you'd NEVER know). I cut down the sugar in the cake by 3/4 cup, and cut the frosting sugar in half. It was still plenty sweet for our taste. I was too lazy to put the pecans in the frosting but I'm sure that would have been good. Next time I'm going to slightly increase all of the spices.

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Laura

Cooking Level: Intermediate

Home Town: Gresham, Oregon, USA

Living In: Hillsboro, Oregon, USA

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Reviewed: Oct. 15, 2009

Delish. I wasn't sure at first... it was a little dry. But once it sat for a few hours with the icing, everything softened up and it was really moist and delicious. A keeper since I know I have a ton more applesauce to get rid of! I put raisins in mine instead of nuts, so it was very similar to carrot cake. I also used sweetened applesauce because that's what I had. The cake wasn't too sweet even with the additional sweetener.

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2ys4you

Cooking Level: Expert

Home Town: Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Living In: Lachine, Quebec, Canada

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Reviewed: Sep. 15, 2009

Yum! Great tasting spice cake - easy, too. Will be making this one again, I know!

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SarahMc

Cooking Level: Intermediate

Home Town: Teutopolis, Illinois, USA

Living In: Edwardsville, Illinois, USA

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Reviewed: Sep. 15, 2009

This is delicious! Sooo moist! I did add more of each spice and substituted half the sugar with Splenda and 1/4 with turbinado sugar. Didn't make the frosting. I feel that it doesn't need it.

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Missy

Cooking Level: Expert

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Reviewed: Aug. 23, 2009

Definitly needs less sugar if using applesauce with sugar already in it. I baked this at 7,000 feet elevation and it turned out perfectly! (I used 1 cup sugar and a little extra flour) I loved the frosting--but used less sugar there also.

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Kaci

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Reviewed: Aug. 16, 2009

Unbelievable!!! I've made many cakes and this one is very quick, easy and delicious! My boyfriend is a real critic when it comes to deserts, but he loved this cake. I followed the recipe exactly except I didn't quite have enough applesauce so I topped it off with some plain yogurt instead... I finished the cake with some vanilla butter cream frosting and it was perfect!!! Thank you... I will definitely be making this again!

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sweets

Cooking Level: Intermediate

Home Town: Thornhill, Ontario, Canada

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Reviewed: Aug. 2, 2009

Delicious cake. I don't like cream cheese frosting so I topped this with the Scrumptious Penuche Frosting on this site and it was awesome!

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MISTICAT57

Cooking Level: Expert

Living In: West Palm Beach, Florida, USA

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Reviewed: Jun. 23, 2009

A delicious cake! Moist, nice spice combination, and the crunchy nuts are a wonderul addition. I left out the suggested topping and applied regular cream cheese frosting. Yummy!

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Dawn-Faith

Cooking Level: Intermediate

Home Town: Mill Valley, California, USA

Living In: Vienna, Wien, Austria

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Reviewed: May 11, 2009

This was an excellent cake. I used homemade applebutter in place of the applesauce and halved the spices. Other than that this was made exactly as stated and it was moist, spicy, not too sweet and kept really well. The icing could probably be cut in half and still have been enough for the cake since it was rather sweet and I still had some left over with the amount in the recipe, but that was just preference. Easy enough to fix, though. We used it as a spread on some banana bread and it was another perfect match! Thank you for a great recipe.

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RioChick

Cooking Level: Intermediate

Home Town: Saxtons River, Vermont, USA

Living In: Reston, Virginia, USA

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Reviewed: Mar. 14, 2009

very good cake!!

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Anne from IL

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Reviewed: Feb. 22, 2009

Following the other reviews, I cit the sugar to 1 C white and 1/4 C dark brown. I replaced the spices with 1 1/2 t Penzey's Cake Spice and used pureed pears instead of applesauce. I used pecans in the cake to match the frosting. I also cut the powdered sugar to 3 cups for the frosting. The cake only took 40 minutes to bake to perfection. The entire family RAVED over it. I also took some to the elderly ladies next door who thought it was the best thing since sliced bread! Wonderful recipe. It will be used again and again!

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Trixi M

Cooking Level: Intermediate

Home Town: Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA

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Reviewed: Feb. 19, 2009

wonderful!! In place of cinnamon, cloves,and alspice I used 1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice.

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Lillie Crane

Cooking Level: Expert

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Reviewed: Jan. 11, 2009

All I have to say is "Wow!" I loved this cake! I, too, had buttermilk and cream cheese that I wanted to use (and a huge jar of applesauce). I made some slight changes. I substituted 1 cup of whole wheat pastry flavor (always do). It's really good quality flour, so you can't even tell. I also cut and shredded one granny smith apple and added it to the batter. I omitted the nuts/melted butter in the icing and just made cream cheese frosting. I didn't quite put 4 cups of sugar either. Oh, and mine didn't take 50 mins either, but I never bake anything for as long as recipes state. My oven is very hot, so it always takes less time. This recipe is a keeper. It is absolutely delicious!

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Lisa

Cooking Level: Expert

Living In: Turnersville, New Jersey, USA

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Reviewed: Nov. 27, 2008

I used this cake in our Oktoberfest Baking Contest! I won second place!!!! I changed using chuncky applesauce and used my own cream cheese icing recipe. Also I made this into a layer cake and in the middle spread caramel ice cream topping. It was SUPER YUM!!!

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A. Froedge

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Reviewed: Nov. 8, 2008

Fantastic! I loved this cake and will be making it again. At first I was not so sure about using APPLESAUCE, but trust me, this is a FANTASTIC cake! I have no suggestions as how to change this recipe, because it is so good, no changes are nessesary.

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Gabi

Cooking Level: Beginning

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Reviewed: Nov. 8, 2008

This recipe is fantastic and was a big hit! I picked it because I needed to use up some leftover buttermilk and I just happen to have applesauce at home as well. The only thing I changed was instead of 1 1/2 cups of white sugar, I did 1 cup of sugar and then a 1/2 cup of soft dark brown sugar. Instead of all of the individually listed spices I just used pumpkin pie spice and a little extra ground cinnamon. Just minor changes - nothing radical - and again, this is a fantastic cake!

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NADES

Cooking Level: Intermediate

Home Town: Brea, California, USA

Living In: Linz, Oberösterreich, Austria

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Reviewed: Nov. 2, 2008

This was a great cake! It was very moist. I did up the cinnamon to a full teaspoon and I also added 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg because I wanted it to be more spice than applesauce flavor. I didn't use the recipe for frosting because I already have a cream cheese frosting that I love (found on this site) that is not overly sweet. I thought this one called for way too much sugar, so I didn't even try it. The flavor of this cake was outstanding! Like a nice carrot cake, minus the carrots and raisins. Oh! One other slight change. I subbed 3/4 cup of the sugar for Splenda. I did think that the order of mixing the cake was very odd, but it turned out just fine. The butter was very hard to encorporate as written. Next time, I'll mix traditionally, creaming the butter with the sugar, then adding eggs, etc... All in all, this recipe (albiet a tad quirky) is a keeper and I will make it again and again.

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