Applesauce Sourdough Cake

 On this recipe, I put the original on and then my notes to how I changed the recipe for me. I have made this cake a few times and love the lightness of it. It is a good fall recipe, and the spices make it wonderful!  Comes from Sourdough Cookery book, by HP Books. It is out of print, so if you see it and into sourdough, buy it! Try it with slices of fresh peaches or apples. This comes from page 138 of book 'Sourdough Cookery' by Rita Davenport.

APPLESAUCE CAKE (sourdough)

½ cup shortening* (see note)
1 ½ cups sugar
2 eggs
1 cup sourdough starter
½ teaspoon imitation rum extract*
½ teaspoon imitation butter flavoring*
1 ½ cups applesauce
1 ¾ cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 ½ teaspoon salt
¾ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon cloves, ground
½ teaspoon allspice
1 cup raisins*
1 cup chopped nuts*
Powdered sugar for decoration
Generously grease and flour a 10-inch Bundt pan or tube pan; set aside. Preheat oven to 350˚. In a large bowl, cream shortening and sugar. Beat in eggs until blended. Add sourdough starter, rum extract, butter flavoring and applesauce. Beat with electric mixer on high speed 2 minutes; set aside. In a medium bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves and allspice. Stir into sourdough mixture. Fold in raisins and nuts. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 1 ¼ hours or until surface springs back when touched with your fingers. Turn out of pan. Cool on rack. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Makes 10 to 12 servings.

*Notes: I didn’t use the flavorings (the butter or rum extracts) instead I used ¼ cup shortening and ¼ cup real butter.
I used 1 ¼ cup unbleached white flour and ½ cup wheat flour. Also I didn’t have on hand raisins or nuts and it turned out just fine. If you do add the raisins and nuts, let me know what you think. I think that this recipe would taste great with them! I do like mixing flours and added the wheat just to give foods a different texture.

Sent it to Week # 16, http://sweet-as-sugar-cookies.blogspot.com/2011/05/sweets-for-saturday-16.html