New Fall Recipe Feature!

Today is the day I share with you the new Fall recipe I learned! Are you ready? I hope so…because it is YUMMY!

I picked the Applesauce & Carrot Spice Cake my Mom posted, simply because I’m in the mood for Fall spice treats. However, the Blueberry Buckle my friend Andrea posted looks AMAZING as well. So I will be trying that in the near future!

One thing I must disclose is that I have eaten the Spice Cake before. My Mom made it recently when I was visiting. So, I already knew I would like it. This also gave me an advantage because I had in mind ways I wanted to tweak it. But I wanted to give the recipe a try because it is from scratch, includes a lot of healthy ingredients, and I wanted to show myself I can actually make these kinds of things!

Well I shopped and tweaked and baked and tasted...and it all turned out so good! Even my husband said it was good. Success!

My notes and photos are included with the recipe below. Enjoy! J

Getting all the ingredients together.

APPLESAUCE-CARROT SPICE CAKE

Prep Time: 25 min
Start to finish: 2 hr 25 min
Servings: 32

Cake:
1 C old-fashioned or quick-cooking oats
1 ¼ C unsweetened applesauce
1 C packed brown sugar
2 C shredded carrots (about 4 medium) ** My nails are now orange! J
2 eggs or ½ C fat-free egg product
1/3 C canola or soybean oil
1 ½ C whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon pumpkin pie spice **Not enough spice for me, so I added ½ TBSP
½ C golden raisins ** Raisins are not my favorite. I made my batch without.
** Optional: Chocolate Chips…I added these to part of the batch. hehe J

Frosting:

4 oz. (from 8 oz. package) reduced-fat cream cheese (Neufchatel) softened
¼ C powdered sugar
3 Tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

1. Heat oven to 350° F. Spray 12 cup fluted tube cake pan with cooking spray. (Or use mini-bunt cake pan or muffin pan - will make at least 24 depending on size. Just adjust the baking time.)

** I used muffin pans but it didn’t quite make 24. Maybe I overfilled?

2. In large bowl, mix oats, applesauce, brown sugar, carrots, eggs, and oil with spoon until well mixed. Stir in remaining cake ingredients just until moistened. Pour into pan.

4. Bake 50 to 55 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Remove from pan to wire rack. Cool completely about 1 hour. (Bake 15-17 min if using the muffin pan.)

 

Fresh out of the oven!

5. In small bowl beat cream cheese and powdered sugar with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Beat in milk and vanilla until well mixed. Spoon over cake.

** I found the icing to be too drippy for muffins. Perhaps less milk? I put the muffins in the refrigerator which hardens the icing. The cake is also great without icing!

Some with icing, some without.
My favorite is the chocolate chip muffin without icing! Yum!

These muffins are good and good FOR you!

Nutritional Information: 1 serving (if cutting the cake into 32 pieces. Adjust amounts based on type of pan used.) Calories: 110, Total Fat 4g, Cholesterol 15mg, Sodium 130mg, Total Carbohydrate 17g (Dietary Fiber 1g, Sugars 10g) Protein 2g.