Applesauce Cake

 

One of the perks of the moving process (and in my opinion, there are very few perks) is discovering kitchen things you may have forgotten about.  Case in point, my small/mini bunt pan set.  It's not quite as small as a "bundtlette" pan, but more of the size of a jumbo muffin pan.  I acquired mine years ago, but I have not used it much.  However, one of the new charms I've discovered with this particular pan is that it fits into the toaster oven!

The other night, I wanted something sweet (surprise, surprise) and unfortunately the options were very slim... I desperately needed to make a trip to the grocery store, but instead my priority had been unpacking & reorganizing the apartment.

I opened the refrigerator, saw a jar of applesauce & suddenly thought of making applesauce cake!  I remembered the small bundt pans I had recently rediscovered. And the toaster oven was already hot from the baked chicken we ate for dinner.

Yes, apple & warm-spices are usually fall or winter flavors.  But desperate times (or an insatiable sweet tooth) call for unusual measures.

The cake came together very quickly, went into the toaster oven, and less than 20 minutes later, we were enjoying moist, spicy, flavorful mini applesauce cakes.  Plus, we had two leftover cakes, naturally destined for the next morning's breakfast.

Recipe

adapted from Food52

The original recipe called for a caramel glaze.  But I did not feel like making caramel, so I just gave the cakes a dusting of confectioners sugar instead.