Gluten Free Applesauce Cake -

3.50 from 2 votes

Gluten Free Applesauce Cake

Darkly sweet and studded with walnuts, a gluten free applesauce cake equals homey comfort. Make it with homemade applesauce if you can.

Prep Time10

Cook Time35

Total Time45

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Diet: Gluten Free

Servings: servings

Calories: 242kcal

Preheat the oven to 350° F. Grease a 9x13-inch baking pan and line it with a piece of parchment paper.
In a large bowl, cream the ½ cup unsalted butter then add the 1 ¼ cups brown sugar and beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Add the 1 cup applesauce then beat in the 2 eggs. The batter may look curdled - this is fine!
In a medium bowl, whisk together the 2 ½ cups gluten free flour, 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda, 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, ½ teaspoon ground ginger, ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg, and ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
Beat the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients on low speed, then fold in the 1 cup chopped walnuts. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and let rest for 15 -20 minutes.
Place the cake in the oven and bake for about 35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on a rack to cool for 30 minutes, then dust with powdered sugar if using. Cut the cake into pieces directly from the pan and serve.

CN's tips

- Don't worry if the batter "breaks." After creaming the butter and sugar, when adding the applesauce and eggs, the mixture has a tendency to look curdled. This is perfectly fine; when the batter is fully combined, it will smooth out.

- Try some almond flour. For extra richness and moisture, substitute ½ cup of the gluten-free flour for fine-ground almond flour.

- Make it dairy-free. Swap non-dairy butter or a neutral oil for the butter.

- Try a spice blend. Simplify life and use a spice blend such as an apple pie spice blend or pumpkin pie spice in place of the combination of spices.

- Make a pumpkin cake. Switch out the applesauce for pumpkin! Use 1 cup of pure pumpkin puree instead of the applesauce. Or just make my gluten free pumpkin sheet cake recipe.
- Bake it as a layer cake. You can make this into a more elaborate cake by baking the batter in two 8 or 9-inch cake rounds, then filling and frosting them with a cream cheese frosting or a simple vanilla buttercream.