Applesauce Cake

If this is your first time to our blog, we are more than just recipes! Each of the recipes on our blog is a recreation from a cookbook published in 1951 in Santa Maria, California. We are not only recreating these recipes, but we are also revisiting the lives of each contributor and sharing their bios with you. You can read more about this project on our About page.

I think it's easy to find a little of ourselves in the story of Belle Earl. Her life, though certainly not unremarkable, was one marked by experiences that are common to many people: growing up with a step-parent, ending a youthful marriage that didn't quite work, raising a child as a single mother, and finally settling into life with a second husband. Though the history that I tend to uncover is very much at the surface, what stands out to me about Belle after putting the broad pieces of her story together is that it seems as though she had a big heart. It would be so intriguing to know more of the fine details of who she was in life.

Belle's recipe for Applesauce Cake really should be called a Date Nut Quickbread. The recipe subs in applesauce in place of eggs, but the true shining flavor of this loaf are the autumn spices and the addition of the chopped dates and walnuts. The loaf has a beautiful seasonal flavor reminiscent of early fall favorites like pumpkin spice and apple cider. The walnuts add a nice texture, while the dates add little pockets of sweetness throughout.

This was my first recipe including dates from Company's a-Comin', but it definitely won't be the last. There are at least 13 recipes with "date" in the title alone, and probably many more with dates on the ingredient list. It is not hard to find recipes from the 1950s and 60s that feature dates; the production of this fruit was quite popular in California at this time and the fruit was abundant.

You can find the recipe for Applesauce Cake below. Let us know what you think...

Applesauce Cake

Servings: 1 loaf

Prep Time: 10 min

Cook Time: 60 min

Total Time: 1 hr 10 min

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups sweetened apple sauce

• 1/2 cup butter

• 1 tsp vanilla

• 2 cups flour

• 2 tsp baking soda

• 1 cup brown sugar

• 1 tsp cinnamon

• 1/2 tsp cloves

• 1/2 tsp nutmeg

• 1 tsp vanilla

• 1 cup chopped nuts

• 1 cup chopped dates

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a loaf pan and set aside.

2. Warm applesauce in saucepan over low heat. Melt in butter.

3. Sift together flour and baking soda.

4. To flour mixture, add brown sugar, cinammon, cloves, and nutmeg. Mix until combined.

5. When butter has melted into the applesauce, remove from heat and mix in vanilla.

6. Add applesauce mixture to flour mixture and mix until combined.

7. Fold in chopped dates and nuts.

8. Add mixture to prepared loaf pan.

9. Bake for about 1 hour until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Notes:

1. Belle was very short with her instructions in the original recipe: "Mix all together, bake in loaf pan for 1 hour at 350 degrees." I tried to be more specific here.