Old-Fashioned Oatmeal Honey Apple Cake

My subscription to Cooking Light ran out this month, and I’m not quite sure what to do.  I love getting the magazine every month, gorgeous pictures, amazing food and most importantly, nutritional information.  Husband has Type 2 diabetes, so I need to be aware of the carb amounts in our meals.  On the other hand, I have stacks and stacks and stacks of magazines.  They take up a lot of room and I could cook something different every day from now until forever with just the magazines I have in these stacks.  What would you guys do?

This recipe is from Cooking Light, April 2008.

No substitutions were made.

Cake:
1 c quick-cooking oats
1 c hot water
1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/3 c packed light brown sugar
3/4 c chunky applesauce
1/3 c honey
2 large eggs
cookingn spray

Frosting:
1/4 c butter
1/3 c packed light brown sugar
1/4 c honey
1/2 c coarsely chopped almonds

To prepare the cake:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Combine oats and hot water in a small bowl; set aside.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife.  In a medium bowl: combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt.  In the bowl of a stand mixer: combine brown sugar, applesauce, honey and eggs; beat on high for 1 minute.  Add oat mixture; beat on low until well blended.  Add half of flour mixture in two halves, combining well each time.

Spoon batter into an 11×7 baking dish coated with cooking spray.  Bake at 350 for 48 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Place dish on a wire rack.  If you don’t have an 11×7 baking dish, you can sub a 9″ square baking dish.

To prepare the frosting:

Preheat broiler.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat.  Add brown sugar and honey; cook 2 minutes, or until bubbly, stirring constantly.  Stir in almonds.  Quickly pour frosting over cake, spreading evenly.

Broil cake 1 minute or until frosting is bubbly and golden.  Cool completely on a wire rack.  Serve with shipped cream, sprinkled with cinnamon.

I love everything about this dense, sticky-sweet cake.  But it tastes like fall, so it feels a little out of place for dessert in early May.  I’m thinking this will be perfect come mid October when the leaves start to change.

Brown Sugar Applesauce Cookies

My mom first introduced me to Penzey’s spices a couple of years ago.  And now any trip home includes an afternoon spent browsing the aisles of spices and dreaming up all the wonderful things to be cooked and baked.

This recipe is from the Penzeys ‘Back to School’ catalog.

No substitutions were made.

1 c packed brown sugar
1/2 c shortening
1/2 c applesauce
1 egg
1 1/4 c flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves

Beat together the brown sugar, shortening, applesauce and egg.  Stir in the remaining ingredients.  Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour or more.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Drop the dough by the rounded spoonful about 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets.  Bake for 8 to 10 minutes until browned.  Immediately remove from the cookie sheets.  Cool, and then spread with frosting.

Frosting

1/4 c butter
2 c powdered sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 to 2 tblsp milk

Heat the butter over medium heat until delicate brown, usually 2 to 3 minutes.  Remove from heat and stir in the powdered sugar and vanilla.  Beat in the milk until smooth.  Spread over cooled cookies.

The first thing to do with any new recipe is to read it all the way through, BEFORE you start.  Setting out to bake some cookies and then BAM, add an hour for refrigeration.  Other than that, these are good cookies.  Next time I might add in some diced apple, or a little cinnamon in the frosting…