Applesauce Date Cake

applesauce cake slice with full cake in background.

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

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword cake

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 1

Cooling Time 2

Total Time 3 30

Servings

Calories 571kcal

Author Sara Garska

Cost $12

Equipment

Stand or hand mixer
Mixing bowls
1 9X9 baking pan

Ingredients

Cake Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup brown sugar firmly packed
1/2 cup butter softened
2 cups unsweetened applesauce warmed
1 cup chopped dates
3/4 cup chopped nuts

Frosting Ingredients

8 ounces cream cheese
4 Tablespoons butter softened
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 cups powdered sugar

Instructions

Cake Directions

Preheat oven to 350°F and grease a 9x9 baking pan.
Sift dry ingredients in a large bowl or bowl of a stand mixer.
Add eggs, sugar, soft butter, and 1 cup hot applesauce and beat at low speed until just combined, then at medium speed for 2 minutes.
Add the remaining applesauce, dates, and nuts and mix for 1 minute.
Pour into prepared pan and bake for 50 minutes.
Allow to completely cool before frosting, about two 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 fluffy and well combined.
Frost the cooled cake with an offset spatula.

Notes

Nutrition information is provided as an estimate only.

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. The first time I made this cake, 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. So just a heads up that you do want to add the "wet" ingredients to the dry ingredients, and that the applesauce is supposed to be warmed up before adding.
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.

Nutrition