National Applesauce Cake Day

June 6th is National Applesauce Cake Day in the United States.

Even though it has what might sound to be a rather odd name, applesauce cake is exactly what it sounds like; a cake made with apple sauce (or applesauce). Applesauce is a purée made from apples and is frequently spiced. The apples are cooked down with water, or possibly fresh apple juice. Different varieties of apples create different types of purée.

Other than having apple sauce adding to the cake mix, this is otherwise a pretty standard type of sweet cake, and there are, naturally, many different recipes for making it. Raisins are a common ingredient. The cake dates back to colonial U.S., and was a popular recipe in the first have of the 20th century. It is sometimes served as a coffee cake; this being the coffee cake that is intended to be eaten with coffee, rather than the coffee cake that is flavoured with coffee.

Image: John Fladd from New Boston, NH, United States / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)