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Chocolate Turtle Applesauce Cake

Chocolate Turtle Applesauce Cake is the easiest, most flavorful, super moist cake. Cake recipes with applesauce are so tasty, with or without frosting!

Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American

Ingredients

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • ⅓ cup cocoa powder, omit if making Spice Cake
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 2 cups applesauce
  • 1 ½ cups sugar
  • ½ cup vegetable oil
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • cooking spray
Decorations
  • ¾ cup pecans, chopped more or less to taste
  • ¾ cup semisweet chocolate chips more or less to taste
  • ¾ cup Toffee bits more or less to taste
  • whipped cream or ice cream - if desired
  • caramel or chocolate sauce - if desired
Spice Cake with Walnuts and Raisins
  • ¾ cup raisins
  • ¾ cup walnuts, chopped
  • 2 tablespoons pumpkin pie spice
  • dusting of powdered or icing sugar
Chocolate Ganache
  • 9 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped
  • ¾ cup heavy or whipping cream (35 %)
  • 3 tablespoons light corn syrup
Caramel Frosting
  • ¼ cup heavy or whipping cream
  • ½ pound soft caramel candies
  • ⅛ teaspoon salt or a pinch
  • ½ cup pecans, toasted and chopped, if desired
Easy Chocolate Frosting
  • 3 cups icing or powdered sugar
  • 8 oz semi sweet chocolate, melted and cooled
  • 1 ¼ cups butter or 2 ½ sticks, softened
  • 3 tablespoons heavy or whipping cream
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 3 tablespoons cocoa
Apple Sauce
  • 1 ½ pounds apples, peeled and cored anywhere from 6 small, 4-5 medium or 3 large apples is my best guess
  • ¼ cup water
  • 2 tablespoons sugar, more or less to taste
  • 1 pinch salt
  • 1 pinch cinnamon, ground, to taste

Instructions

Apple Sauce
    Cup of Yum
  1. This recipe makes 2 cups of applesauce.
  2. Cut apples up and place them in saucepan large enough to hold them all.
  3. Add sugar, salt, water and a pinch of cinnamon if you will be eating this applesauce yourself.
  4. Bring to boil over medium high heat.
  5. Once boiling, immediately reduce your heat your to medium, cover, and cook.
  6. Stir occasionally until your apples are tender and falling apart, approximately 15 minutes.
  7. Using your potato masher or an immersion blender, mash or blend your apples to your preferred consistency.
  8. Sweeten with extra sugar to taste. Serve warm, at room temperature, or chilled.
  9. Applesauce can be refrigerated for up to 5 days or frozen in an airtight container for up to 3 months.
Making the Cake
  1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a 13x9 inch pan with cooking spray. Set aside.
  2. In a large bowl combine everything. Yep everything. Combine flour, baking soda, salt, applesauce, sugar, oil, eggs and vanilla. We use a handheld mixer to blend ingredients together but it is up to you. Add cocoa and blend if you are making the chocolate turtle version of this cake.
  3. If making the spice cake, using walnuts and raisins, add them and pumpkin pie spice to your batter now.
  4. Pour batter into your prepared pan. Using a spatula do your best to flatten and even out the top of the cake batter.
  5. Sprinkle with pecans, chocolate chips and then toffee bits, if desired.
  6. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until all of the sweets on top are melted or a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. If baking this cake without sweets on top cooking time is about 30 minutes.
  7. Allow cake to cool totally in the pan.
  8. Serve with chocolate sauce, caramel, ice cream or whipped cream or frosting, or decorate as desires, if desired. Enjoy!
Chocolate Ganache
  1. Cook cream, chocolate, and corn syrup in medium saucepan over medium-low heat, whisking constantly, until smooth, about 5 or 6 minutes. Transfer mixture to medium bowl and refrigerate until thickened but still spreadable, 1 to 2 hours.
  2. Spread chocolate icing over top and sides of cake and refrigerate until set, about 30 minutes.
Caramel Frosting
  1. Finely chop toasted pecans, if using. Heat caramels, remaining ½ cup cream, and salt in medium saucepan over medium-low heat, whisking constantly, until smooth, about 6 minutes. Reserve ¾ cup caramel for topping. Stir chopped pecans into remaining caramel mixture, cover, and keep warm.Spread reserved ¾ cup caramel over top of cake (caramel should be no hotter than 120 degrees or icing will melt
Easy Chocolate Frosting
  1. The frosting can be made up to 2 days ahead and refrigerated in an airtight container. Before using the frosting, let it stand at room temperature until softened, about 2 hours, then whip with an electric mixer.
  2. In an electric mixer fitted with whisk attachment, beat butter, cream, vanilla, salt, and chocolate on medium-high speed until combined.
  3. Reduce mixer speed to medium-low. Add cocoa and slowly add powdered sugar and mix until smooth, 1 to 2 minutes. Increase speed to medium-high and beat frosting until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.