As you might suspect, I used to bake quite a bit as a tween and teenager, when I wasn't babysitting! I remember making chocolate chip cookies, brownies and sheet cakes in our kitchen at home. But especially a particular "Applesauce Cake" from "Joy of Cooking," one of several cooking bibles found in most American homes.
The cake was moist and delicious. It wasn't iced, and wasn't too sweet. We always had lots of macintosh apples around our house in the fall. My mother made pies and homemade applesauce, which I used for this cake. I added raisins to the batter, sometimes walnuts too.
A number of years ago I went looking for the recipe, thinking it would be nice to make this cake again. But the recipe had been removed from subsequent issues of the cookbook, much to my dismay. And so I moved on to other cakes and other cookbooks, life went on. When "Joy of Cooking" celebrated its 75th anniversary not too long ago, I did buy an updated anniversary edition for my cookbook collection.
This past week, faced with quite a few apples in the orchard at Struan Farm, I decided to search the internet to see if I could find the recipe for the "Joy of Cooking Applesauce Cake." And guess what? I found it here!
I used some of our Peasgood Nonsuch apples to make applesauce, after which I made the cake. And yes, it's the very same cake that I remember--moist and delicious! It was almost like reconnecting with an old friend after many years.
But the story gets better. Guess what else? I looked in the 75th Anniversary edition of "Joy of Cooking," and discovered that the recipe for "Applesauce Cake" had been put back in.
It seems I wasn't the only one who'd missed it.
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