TOASTED WALNUT SPICE CAKE

If you follow this blog you might know that I am a volunteer for Alzheimer's Idaho (local grassroots organization) and one of the things that I do is make the dessert for their monthly support group meeting. They normally meet the last Friday of the month but because of the holiday they met last Friday.

 A few simple ingredients to put together a moist, spicy cake.

 

The only real "prep" work is to toast the walnuts (you could omit the toasting but the flavor is so much better with the nuts toasted). 350 ° 8-10 minutes - keep an eye on them don't want them to burn - I open the oven every few minutes and give them a shake.  I think the easiest way to "chop" the nuts is to put them in a freezer bag and roll over them with a rolling pin - no mess and you can simply pour them into your measuring cup.

Two cakes ready for the oven.

Recipe - for one cake

preheat oven 350°

1 package yellow cake mix (I prefer Duncan Hines)

1 cube butter, melted

3 eggs, room temp

1 1/2 cups applesauce (I prefer Santa Cruz brand Apple Apricot Sauce)

1 teaspoon apple pie spice

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ginger

1/2 cup toasted, chopped California walnuts

Pour the cake mix and the spices into your mixing bowl and gently mix (on lowest setting so the mix does not come flying out of the bowl) until the spices are distributed into the mix.

Pour the applesauce into a medium size bowl and add the butter - that way if the butter is still warm the applesauce will cool the butter.

Add this mixture to your dry ingredients and then add the eggs one at a time, add the walnuts & run the mixer to mix your cake, 2-3 minutes, batter will be thick.

Pour into your prepared Bundt pan (I use a spray like Baker's Joy) and put into the pre-heated oven.

Bake for 35-40 minutes then cool on a rack before inverting onto your plate.

Frosted with buttercream frosting using a large decorating tip.  When frosting like this the main thing to do is to NOT stop once you have started the row of frosting.

Buttercream Frosting

Enough frosting for a regular two layer cake or two of these Bundt cakes.

1 cup butter, softened

4 cups confectioners sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1 Tablespoon Vanilla (I use Vanilla Bean Paste)

Approx 3 T of cream, may need more, or less

Place the softened butter in your mixer using the paddle attachment and beat until light and fluffy, on low speed gradually add all the sugar (must be low or you will get a sugar cloud all over your kitchen) once incorporated add the salt and the vanilla and then turn up the mixer and let it just whirl away - go do something else for a bit - you want this frosting to be well incorporated and beautifully fluffy.

A note about resources.  I have always found it VERY frustrating to see something online or in a magazine spread that I LOVED and just had to have but there is no information about that item available -  that is why I always do my best to add a resource.  Unfortunately I may have purchased the item long ago but I still add where the item came from so those resourceful folks who like to scour the internet and hunt on Ebay will at least have an origin source.  In a perfect world I would have items to ship but hey, my world like yours, not so perfect! j. 

Resource

Bundt pans, Walmart

Cake Stand, Tuesday Morning

Yellow Plates, 222 5th.

Script on card, Freebooter Script

Thank you for stopping by.