Old Fashioned Applesauce Snack Cake

This old-fashioned applesauce snack cake is moist and full of delicious cinnamon and apple flavors.  It’s great on its own, but sublime with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!

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Pan of old fashioned applesauce snack cake dusted with powdered sugar and cut into squares ready to serve.

What’s A Snack Cake?

A snack cake is a cake that’s typically easy to make, is single-layered, has little or no decoration, and is meant to be eaten any time of day.  

Moms and Grandmas used to make a cake and leave it in its pan on the back of the kitchen counter for the family to cut small squares to snack on throughout the day. It was also a popular after-school snack with a tall glass of milk.

Ingredients Needed

  • All-purpose flour, baking soda, and salt
  • Cinnamon and apple pie spice 
  • Butter
  • Granulated sugar and brown sugar
  • Eggs
  • Vanilla
  • Applesauce
  • Buttermilk
  • Apple

Closeup of a serving of old fashioned applesauce snack cake dusted with powdered sugar on a wooden serving board.

Steps To Make This Recipe

  1. Grease and flour an 8-inch pan.
  2. Whisk together the dry ingredients.
  3. Cream together the butter and sugars.
  4. Mix in the eggs, vanilla, and apple sauce.
  5. Alternatively, mix in half of the dry ingredients.
  6. Stir in the buttermilk and grated apple.
  7. Fold in the remaining dry ingredients.
  8. Spoon the batter into the pan and bake.
  9. Cool the cake in the pan and dust with powdered sugar before serving.

Servings of old fashioned applesauce snack cake on a wooden board dusted with powdered sugar.

Optional Add-Ins:

  • Chopped nuts such as pecans, walnuts, or macadamias.
  • Add dry fruit like raisins, craisins, chopped dried apple, ginger, pineapple, or cherries
  • Chocolate chips

Looking for more vintage dessert recipes?  Here are a few more to try:

Print
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Closeup of a serving of old fashioned applesauce snack cake dusted with powdered sugar on a wooden serving board.

Old Fashioned Applesauce Snack Cake


Description

This old-fashioned applesauce snack cake is moist and full of delicious cinnamon and apple flavors.  It’s great on its own, but sublime with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!


Ingredients

Scale

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon apple pie spice

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup butter, room temperature

½ cup granulated sugar

½ cup brown sugar

3 large eggs, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup unsweetened applesauce

¼ cup buttermilk

1 Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored, and grated


Instructions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Spray an 8-inch square baking pan with baking spray.  Dust lightly with about a teaspoon of flour. Shake the pan to coat the bottom of the pan with the flour and then dump the excess flour into the trash. Set the pan aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda cinnamon, apple pie spice, and salt.  Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the butter and both sugars until creamy and fluffy – about 3 minutes.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating to incorporate after each addition.

Pour in the vanilla and the applesauce and mix until smooth.

Fold in about half of the dry ingredients just until incorporated, then stir in the buttermilk.

Fold in the remaining dry ingredients and the grated apple until completely incorporated, but do not over mix.

Spoon the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

Remove the cake from the oven and cool on a wire rack.

Dust with powdered sugar before serving, if desired.

  • Prep Time: 15 minutes
  • Cook Time: 30 minutes
  • Category: Dessert
  • Method: Bake
  • Cuisine: American

Keywords: old-fashioned applesauce snack cake, applesauce cake, spice cake, snacking cake, old-fashioned recipes, vintage recipes, homebaking, after-school recipes

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