Fancy cakes swirled with frosting, piped with roses and ombre hued are always a treat for the eyes and belly, but if you’re time is limited, or you just don’t have the energy, snack cakes are where it’s at. “Easy and unfussy” is like a siren call to us lazy, er – time challenged – bakers and a cake recipe that doesn’t require too much effort and can be made in one bowl — with or without an electric mixer is like striking gold. This One-Bowl Applesauce Walnut Snack Cake is snacking nirvana!
This recipe is adapted from my grandmother’s applesauce cake. It’s lightly spiced, moist, fragrant and studded with crunchy toasted walnuts and sweet flecks of golden raisins. And it’s easy. Really easy.
Whisk the dry ingredients together and add the wet ingredients.
Stir with a spatula to combine.
Add the nuts and raisins.
Spread the batter in a prepared pan (I like to line my cake pans with parchment paper for fuss free removal).
Bake. That’s it. THAT’S IT!
If you’re feeling adventurous you could frost it with a cream cheese or buttercream but for me, a sprinkle of powdered sugar is the only adornment this cake needs! Even though there’s only two of us in the house, this cake was gone in two days. No lie!
One-Bowl Applesauce Walnut Snack Cake
An easy one-bowl snack cake recipe with a light spice. Speckled with crunchy toasted walnuts and raisins it's a homestyle classic.
Ingredients
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg (freshly grated if you have it)
- 1/4 teaspoon allspice
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 3/4 cups unsweetened applesauce
- 1/2 cup canola or vegetable oil
- 1 large egg lightly beaten
- 1 cup walnuts toasted and chopped
- 1/2 cup golden raisins
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350°. Spray a 9x9" square baking pan with vegetable spray and line it with a rectangular piece of parchment paper cut to fit the dimensions of the bottom of the pan with several inches on either side to hang over the edges. Spray the parchment paper with vegetable spray and set aside.
In a large bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and cloves, whisk to combine. Make a well in the dry ingredients and add the applesauce, vegetable oil and egg. Stir until just combined. Stir in the walnuts and raisins and spread into the prepared pan.
Bake for 55-65 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 15 minutes then carefully lift the cake with the sides of the parchment paper and transfer to a wire rack to cool to room temperature.
You can frost with your favorite cream cheese or buttercream frosting or just dust with powdered sugar.
More Easy Desserts:
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- Brown Sugar Cornmeal Plum Cake
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- Easy Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Frosting
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- Lemon Strawberry Crumb Cake
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Delicious! So moist. Great way to use up applesauce for those of us with apple trees and lots of apples to use. It seemed like a lot of oil to me and I was wondering if less oil could be used. I might try to reduce the oil/increase the apple sauce next time.
Can this cake be made in a bundt pan? Looks delicious!
Hi Donna! A 10″ bundt pan holds 12 cups of batter. A 9″ square baking pan holds 8 cups. You would need to make 1 1/2 batches of this recipe to fill your bundt pan — and obviously the cooking time would need to be adjusted.
My boyfriend and I loved this cake, the spice mix was amazing. I was impressed at how quick it was to make and only took one bowl. I also liked that it called for oil and not softened butter, also a time saver. We left out the nuts and frosted with cream cheese frosting. Thanks so much for sharing, I will make this again.
So happy that you and your boyfriend enjoyed it! That cream cheese frosting sounds like a decadent addition!
I seriously… basically.. only bake when I’m snowed in lol. So it needs to be easy, because I’ll be out of practice. This looks perfect.. it’s making me hungry!!
I hope you enjoy it Sarah! It’s REALLY easy!
I absolutely love convenient, delicious one bowl cakes like these. Because sometimes (a lot of the time), it’s late and I want a slice of something sweet and just don’t have the energy for complicated baking. The crumb on this cake looks fantastic!
It’s my go-to applesauce cake and it doesn’t suck!