Super Easy Cake

The Princess loves to bake with me, and I love spending time in the kitchen with her. Her favorite things to make are cupcakes. She usually requests pink and purple flavored, so I do my best to accommodate her :). Our biggest problem with baking together is her desire to eat the cake batter and my desire to keep her out of the hospital with salmonella poisoning. I'm just such a controlling mom. I know. So when I came across a recipe on hungrygirl.com for cakes made without eggs and using only cake mix and canned pumpkin I was so excited to try it. They were really good and had a fudgey muffin type texture. We have been making them for years. Recently she posted several two ingredient cakes that sounded interesting, so I'm going to try them out here.
The first combination is cake mix and no sugar added applesauce. The site suggested yellow cake mix, so I went with that. I used Betty Crocker, as usual, because of the pudding in the mix. I have no idea why that matters, but I feel like it has to be better.

I mean, I've never heard anyone complain about pudding...

Anyway, simply combine cake mix, 1 cup applesauce, and one cup water and whisk to combine. Bake according to box directions in a 350 degree oven. I made cupcakes and an 8" cake in order to test both.

The batter looked like regular batter and mixed up very easily. The finished product was springy and light and very moist (Ugh, that word! Hate it. Is there another word I could use here? Seriously, send me suggestions. I've got three or four more cakes to try, and I can't keep typing it). They smelled wonderful when they came out of the oven.

As far as taste goes, these were really good. Knowing that there was applesauce in the batter made it hard to ignore the slight fruity apple flavor, but I don't think anyone else would be able to tell. My husband thought they could definitely be used in place of a yellow cake. He said that they tasted more homemade than a box mix. Not a bad thing. Also, even without frosting on them, you would never know that they were so much healthier for you. The Princess thought they were "super yummy". The texture was also great.
While I was mixing the batter it smelled so sweet that it made me think of frostings and glazes, so I made a quick one with applesauce and powdered sugar with great results. After letting the cake and cupcakes cool slightly, I spooned it over the desserts.

This combination was a success.

Very very good, easy, and so much better for you!

Also, no salmonella.

Winner.

Bryn