Applesauce whole wheat cake is a moist, spongy and a tasty cake with lots of nuts and a touch of cinnamon flavor. It is a great edible gift for the holidays.

Cakes for the Holidays

The theme for this week is bake them cakes! Yesterday it was fresh cranberry cake and today it is applesauce whole wheat cake. If I were to pick one cake from the three cakes for this theme, it is today's cake. It is easy to prepare and tastes wonderful!

Applesauce Cake

Applesauce cake has become one of my favorite cakes since I first baked it almost couple of years ago. I baked the cake twice last year and each time it was a gift. The first time I took it to my cousin’s place and the second time it was for our blogging marathon group meetup. The feedback I got from cousins and from fellow BMers was good. Though I baked the cake twice last year, I could not take any pictures of the sliced cake as those were gifts. Hence baked it again last week. Below picture is from last year.

Last year when I baked the cake, I used atta flour and this time I used King Arthur whole wheat flour. I feel the commercial atta flour is more refined than whole wheat flour and I was afraid the cake might have a dense texture. So I baked only ½ the recipe. Luckily the recipe calls for 2 eggs, which makes it easy to scale down the recipe to half.

This is King Arthur Flour recipe and their recipes have volume, ounce and gram measures and with gram measures, it wasn’t a challenge measuring rest of the ingredients. And when it comes to baking, I always prefer gram measures to volume (cup) measures, specially for flour and sugar.

Though the recipe calls for applesauce, it does not have much of an apple flavor. Cake is loaded with nuts and flavored with decent amount of cinnamon and cloves powders, giving the cake a festive & holiday feel.

This recipe is a keeper and cake is versatile to serve anytime of the day. Dust it with powdered sugar and serve it as a snack or for dessert. A few other ways to serve the cake is with a caramel glaze or some frosting. I prefer the cake without any glaze, frosting or even powdered sugar.

Baking Pans

I baked the cake in round pans and in loaf pans. This time I baked half the recipe and that is what is listed below. For the below recipe use 6" pan and for a bigger cake, double the recipe and use a 9” round cake pan or 4 mini loaves (7x3 ½").

Applesauce Whole Wheat Cake Recipe

📖 Recipe

Applesauce Whole Wheat Cake

A moist, tasty cake with applesauce, whole wheat flour and lots of nuts.

4.89 from 9 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Dessert, Snack, Teatime Snack

Cuisine: American

Prep Time: 20

Cook Time: 40

Total Time: 1

Servings:

Calories: 258kcal

Ingredients

¾ cup + 2 tablespoon or 99 grams Whole Wheat Flour
½ teaspoon Baking Soda
¼ teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
½ teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
¼ teaspoon Ground Cloves
½ cup or 106.5 grams Brown Sugar
¼ cup or 56 grams Unsalted Butter
1 Large Egg
½ cup Unsweetened Applesauce
¼ cup or 42.5 grams Raisins or Currants
¼ cup or 28.5 grams chopped Walnuts

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 F.
Lightly grease a 6” cake pan. Use a 9” cake pan for double the recipe.
In a medium sized bowl mix or whisk together all the dry ingredients; wheat flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder, cinnamon and cloves until well blended.
In a large bowl, cream together sugar and butter.
Add the eggs and beat well.
Fold in dry ingredients alternating with applesauce. Fold or mix until just combined and do not over beat.
Stir in raisins and walnuts until just mixed.
Pour the batter into a prepared pan and bake until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 40 - 50 minutes. It took 37-38 minutes in my oven. In mini loaf pans bake time was 35 minutes.
Let the cake cool for 10 minutes in the pan, turn the cake onto a cooling rack and let cool completely.
Dust the top of the cake with powdered sugar and serve. If you are like me, eat it as is.
Store the cake in a covered container at room temperature for 3 days or freeze it upto 3 months.