This moist applesauce cake is a delightful blend of brown sugar and spices, topped with a luscious cream cheese frosting and crunchy walnuts.

Grandmother’s Applesauce Date Cake

This applesauce date nut cake is now one of my favorite desserts ever, with the perfect combination of sweet brown sugar and cream cheese frosting paired with earthy spices, applesauce, and nuts.

Recently I found this recipe in my grandmother’s recipe box that I saved after she died. Even though I’ve had her recipes for over 40 years, I hadn’t noticed this cake.

However, since I’ve come to love dates recently, it immediately caught my eye as I went through her recipes looking for something to try.

I knew that the dates, chopped nuts, and applesauce would create a moist and dense cake and the spices would add lots of pizzaz. The addition of a sweet cream cheese frosting puts the flavor over the top!

This cake was so delicious—I just wanted to eat it all up by myself. However, I shared some and I also froze some of it. It’s easy to cut and I wrapped square pieces in plastic wrap and then put them into a freezer bag. It tastes just as good later. –Sara

Ingredients

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Cake

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 cup softened butter
2 cups unsweetened apple sauce
1 cup chopped dates
3/4 cup chopped walnuts

Frosting

8oz cream cheese (1 typical package)
2 Tablespoons softened butter
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 cups powdered sugar

Helpful Kitchen Tools

Instructions

Cake Directions:

To Prep: Grease 9×9 inch baking pan and preheat oven to 350°F.

Sift dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer.
Add eggs, sugar, soft butter, and 1 cup of hot applesauce. Beat at low speed until ingredients are combined, then increase to medium speed for two minutes.
Add the remaining applesauce, dates, and nuts and mix for one minute.
Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 50 minutes. Allow to cool completely before frosting (1-2 hours).

Frosting Directions:

In large mixing bowl, combine cream cheese, butter, and vanilla extract. Mix on low speed until smooth and fluffy.
Gradually add the powdered sugar, mixing as you add.
Continue beating at medium speed until everything is well incorporated and the frosting is fluffy.
Use an offset spatula to frost the cooled cake.

Prep Tips

Dates – The most common type of date to buy at the grocery store is Medjool dates, but you should be able to use any kind you find. These are moist and sweet. You can buy them already pitted but be sure and check each one just in case. In my cup of pitted dates, one did have a pit. You don’t want that going in your cake!
Chopped Nuts – I used walnuts because that’s what the recipe recommended and it’s what seemed the best fit for the dates and spices. However, you could use pecans if that is what you have on hand.
Mixing the Ingredients – My grandmother’s recipe said to add the butter, applesauce, and sugar to the dry ingredients and mix. I didn’t do that because usually you start by creaming the butter and sugar AND THEN adding the dry ingredients, so her directions seemed backwards. However, as I was going through the recipe and saw that it called for HOT applesauce, her instructions where the applesauce is added in the second step made sense. My process photos will show the way I mixed it, but I decided to keep my Grandmother’s recipe steps and that is how I will make it next time.
Storage – Because the frosting contains cream cheese, you’ll want to keep leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator, for up to 4-5 days.
Freezing – This cake is easy to cut and freeze. I cut my leftovers into individual serving sizes and wrapped each in plastic wrap. Then I put the wrapped pieces of cake into a freezer bag. Allow to come to room temperature to serve.

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