Applesauce Cake with Butterscotch Chips
Imagine eating a caramel apple, in cake form. This incredible cake delivers the sweetness of applesauce and nuttiness of butterscotch chips in every ultra-moist bite. Made in one bowl with a handful of ingredients, it’s also gluten-free friendly.
This cake is great for breakfast, brunch, lunch, midday snacking, and dessert. It’s perfectly sweet, but not overly sugary, which makes it ideal for any time of day. And since we use applesauce to keep the batter moist, there’s very little fat needed (just 4 tablespoons for the whole cake).
You can make this cake dairy-free by using vegetable oil instead of butter. You can also use coconut oil if that’s your preference, just melt the coconut oil before incorporating it into the batter.
I love the caramel-like quality the butterscotch chips add to this cake. As I said before, it’s like eating a caramel apple, in cake form. If desired, you can use white chocolate chips instead of butterscotch chips.
You can make this cake gluten-free by using gluten-free flour. Choose your favorite gluten-free flour and swap it in for regular flour in a 1:1 ratio.
Applesauce Cake with Butterscotch Chips
Ingredients
- Cooking spray
- 1 1/4 cups unsweetened applesauce
- 4 tablespoons butter, melted, or vegetable oil or coconut oil, melted
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, or gluten-free flour of choice
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- Pinch of salt
- 1/2 cup butterscotch chips
Equipment
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Coat an 8-inch square baking pan with butter, or vegetable oil, or cooking spray.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the applesauce, melted butter (or oil), egg, and vanilla.
- Whisk in the flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt until just blended (don’t over-mix; mix just until the flour is incorporated). Fold in the butterscotch chips.
- Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and smooth the surface. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until a wooden pick inserted near the center comes out with little moist bits clinging to it.
- Cool the cake in the pan, on a wire rack, for 10 minutes before slicing and serving. Store leftovers in an airtight container.