Applesauce Cake

In the middle of the city of Columbus, I stumbled upon an apple tree, next to a parking lot.

It was not any sort of apple tree. It was an apple tree that is producing a lot of apples, ripe apples, so many that a lot of them were on the ground, rotting away.

It sure didn't look like the tree belonged to anyone in particular...so I went ahead, and gathered a few good apples. I knew exactly what was going to become of them: applesauce cake.

Our children love this cake. I made it a bunch of times last fall, back in Santa Cruz, with the apples we picked from a cool little orchard not too far from the coast.

Here is the recipe that we like for applesauce cake, adapted from the Joy of Cooking:

Applesauce cake

1 1/2 cups flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon cloves

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

1/2 teaspoon salt

8 tablespoons butter

1 cup sugar 

1 egg

1 cup thick, preferably homemade applesauce 

1/2 cup raisins (optional)

 Heat oven to 350F. Cream butter and sugar.  

Beat in egg and applesauce.  

Sift all dry ingredients together. Add to wet ingredients

Bake in greased pan 50-60 minutes.