Chocolate Covered Gingerbread Applesauce Cake

So, I don't bake as much as I should. Mainly because I love, LOVE baked goodies and will eat them to excess if they are around. But, thanks to some inspiration that was posted on Facebook this month and a recent bout of kickboxing workouts that make me feel like I can eat sweets and get away with it, I have created... the best cake in the universe.

Ok. I have to give most of the credit to a blogger I am a little bit in love with. Smitten Kitchen is like smoothly seductive food porn and I can't. stop. looking at it. Some well-meaning Facebook friend posted a link to her Spiced Applesauce Cake with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting and I happen to have an abundance of apples from the orchard just a mile down the road. I had to give it a whirl. I don't follow recipes very often, but I followed hers fairly closely and was so impressed by the results I knew I wanted to play with it some more. I've made about seven batches of it now and shared some of the various results with family and friends and I've come up with a spin on a luscious applesauce cake that will be sure to please you and yours.

I did make my own applesauce to go into this dish, with the help of my two grade-school-aged sous chefs, but you can use any applesauce you like. I added some extra spices and molasses to the cake and drizzled it with melted semi-sweet chocolate instead of frosting. The result is moist, spicy, chocolaty heaven with less sugar and more fiber than your usual everyday cake. I may never bother to make any other cake. Ever.

Chocolate Covered Gingerbread Applesauce Cake

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1 cup white whole-wheat flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

2 tbs ground ginger

3-4 tbs fresh ginger juice (grate ginger than squeeze out the juice through a strainer or add another tbs of ground ginger.)

1/2 tsp allspice

1/2 tsp pepper (adds the perfect kick to the ginger, believe it!)

1 stick of softened unsalted butter

3/4 cup natural unbleached sugar (sucanat or turbinado will add a little extra flavor.)

1/2 cup blackstrap molasses

1 tsp pure vanilla extract (check your extract to make sure it doesn't have any sweeteners or fillers in it. This will make a huge difference in this and other recipes.)

2 eggs (I got mine from a neighbor who raises chickens, but I will buy cage-free from the store.)

1 1/2 cups of unsweetened applesauce

4 bars of semi-sweet baking chocolate, melted. (I boil water in a pan then set a bowl on top of it and stir the chunked up bars until they melt.)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour an 8 or 9 inch cake pan. In a small bowl, mix together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt and all the dry spices. In a large bowl beat together the butter, sugar, molasses, vanilla and fresh ginger juice at high speed until well combined. Add the eggs and applesauce and again mix thoroughly. Add in the flour mixture and mix at low speed just until it is combined. Spread the batter in your pan and bake for about 35-40 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10-15 minutes then remove from the pan onto a cooling rack. If you are serving it immediately, put it onto a plate, drizzle with the chocolate and serve it warm. Now you are forever done with dry, boring cakes and you too can delight in having created the best cake in the universe. Or at least pretty darn close.