Spiced Apple Pound Cake with Apple Cider & Caramel Frosting

On Monday, I showed you how I make my own apple cider. One of the byproducts of making my own cider was apple sauce. Since I mashed most of the liquid out of it, it was dry and somewhat inedible. While this could have been fixed by boiling it again and adding some sugar, I chose a different route–making a cake.

For cake:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsps cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 cup oil
• 2 eggs
• 1 tbsp vanilla
• 3 cups chopped pecans (optional)
• 3 cups chunky apple sauce, liquid removed*

For frosting:

• 2-3 cups powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup apple cider
• 8 oz cinnamon caramel apple cream cheese spread
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

Step 01: Preheat oven to 350°F. Stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Add the sugars, oil (leave oil out if you want a less dense cake), eggs, and vanilla. Beat for two minutes. Add the apple sauce and beat until well-combined. Pour batter into a prepared 10-inch tube pan.

 

 

(I used a spring-form pan, as you can see. If you choose to use this instead of a tube pan, add another 15 minutes to your bake time. The edges will be a little overdone, though.)

Step 02: Bake for one hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

Step 03: Beat together powdered sugar, apple cider, cream cheese, and butter until smooth and well-incorporated.

 

This is what I used in the frosting. It’s Kroger’s generic brand. I don’t know if anyone else makes it–this happened to catch my eye and I grabbed it.

Step 04: Once the cake has finished cooling, frost it and serve.

*For a less dense cake, use sliced apples instead.

Serve it with some milk or cold apple cider. Yum.

Enjoy!

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