This image provided by America’s Test Kitchen in October 2018 shows the cover for the cookbook “Perfect Cake.” It includes a recipe for an applesauce snack cake. (America’s Test Kitchen via AP)Applesauce cakes don’t have a singular definition; they run the gamut from dense, chunky fruitcakes to gummy “health” cakes without much flavor. We wanted a moist and tender cake that actually tasted like apples.
To achieve the loose, rustic crumb that’s best suited to a snack cake, we used the simple quick-bread mixing method, mixing the wet ingredients separately and then gently adding the dry ingredients by hand.
The challenge lay in adding more apple flavor. Simply increasing the applesauce made for a gummy cake, and fresh apples added too much moisture. But two other sources worked well: apple cider and dried apples.
When reduced to a syrup, the apple cider contributed a pleasing sweetness and a slight tang without excess moisture. And dried apples – plumped in the cider while it was reducing – gave our cake even more apple flavor.
We liked the textural contrast provided by a simple sprinkling of spiced granulated sugar over the cake before baking. This cake is very moist, so it’s best to err on the side of overbaked when testing its doneness. We prefer the rich flavor of cider, but you can substitute apple juice.