Applesauce Loaf Cake

A couple months ago, my brother-in-law accidentally bought a bag of white whole wheat flour.  He had no idea what to do with it, so he gave it to me.  I didn't really know what to do with it either. I mean, I use whole wheat flour and I use white flour.  I was unsure about how to use this weird hybrid of the two.

I experimented with it a little, but it wasn't really interchangeable with white flour (too dense) and I just prefer whole wheat flour in the right application.  So the poor hybrid flour just sat there, unused.  But then I started to get annoyed that it was in my flour container, forcing me to scoop white flour out of the bag.  So I decided to use it whether I wanted to or not.

Then I remembered this recipe that I bookmarked a while back.  Whole Wheat Applesauce Loaf Cake by Eat, Live, Run.  Mmmm...applesauce cake.  Anyway, I decided that this would be the perfect way to wipe out the hybrid flour.  Anything that was left was just going to be mixed with a new bag of white flour and I'd deal with the consequences later. I made a double batch to use more flour.

The recipe calls for frosting, but I didn't want to use frosting, so I didn't.  It is not a really sweet cake, I guess if you're into that sort of thing you could throw in an extra half cup of sugar, or use sweetened applesauce.

The only complaint I had about this recipe is that it was too salty. Of course, it could just be me because I don't like the taste of salt.  I use it in all of my recipes because food tastes yucky without it, but I tend to use less than most people because I don't want to taste it.  Basically, if I consider something inedible due to salt content, my husband thinks it's perfect.  So what I'm really trying to say is, I could taste salt in the cake.  It wasn't overpowering, but I will cut the salt back to 1/2 a teaspoon in future.

Oh, and they didn't rise in the center.  But that could have been my fault for using my KitchenAid too aggressively.  I do that sometimes. 

Here's the recipe:

Whole Wheat Applesauce Loaf Cake

1 cup sugar
1 stick butter, softened
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 cup unsweetened applesauce

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a loaf pan.

-Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and the egg and keep beating until well combined.

-In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Add dry ingredients, along with applesauce, to the wet ingredients and beat until combined.

-Spread batter in the greased loaf pan, smooth surface with a rubber spatula, and bake for about 1 hour, until cooked through and golden brown.

That's all for today.

Enjoy!