Continuing the vegan cake research - this week using applesauce

The great cake experiment continues, although for the sake of our waistlines I’m not sure for how much longer! So far I’ve made several successful vegan cakes using flax egg, including the Sticky Ginger Cake I wrote about in this year’s first post and my veganisation of my Mum’s Date and Walnut Squares. This week I decided to have a go at using a different egg substitute – applesauce.

The good news for vegan folks living in France is that applesauce is one ingredient that you won’t have to go far to find. It’s available in every supermarket, at prices ranging from the budget BienVu to top-end Bio. Applesauce is popular all across Europe and North America. In Germany it is eaten as a sauce with potato pancakes, in the UK and Sweden it’s an accompaniment to savoury main courses, usually of meat origin and in France it’s popular as a breakfast compote or a dessert. In fact, if you only need a small quantity for baking, like a tablespoon or two, then the small four-pack 150g breakfast pots could suit – they’re in the chilled cabinets and also on the ambient shelves, usually near jams.

The documented culinary use of applesauce dates back to the 1700s and to medieval times before that. Not surprising perhaps, as it’s a good way of preserving apples through the winter. Whilst researching I came across a fantastic historical food blog with lots more background info and recipes, too. Another to add to my follow list. Of course, applesauce is very easy to make, and now that I’ve discovered its versatility in vegan baking I’ll be gathering the fallings from the apple trees around the village this summer to make my own. Basically, it’s just apples, water, sweetener and lemon juice – a quick Google search will throw up loads of recipes.

So, what did I bake this week? Well, I started off with a fabulous Spiced Apple Cake from one of my favourite food bloggers, Vegan Richa. This recipe did include flax meal as well as the applesauce and baking powder. I pretty much followed it to the letter, except for doubling the quantity of cinnamon – we LOVE cinnamon, and I didn’t add the topping. It was a great success, so good I had to make it twice.

Vegan Apple Muffins

Next I was looking around for another applesauce-based cake when a recipe popped up in my inbox for Vegan Apple Muffins. This time from LovingItVegan. Although I was supposed to be focusing on building up my recipe library of large vegan cakes, I couldn’t resist trying this out. In addition to the applesauce this recipe called for vegan buttermilk. Ah! I’d had problems with this before, so lesson learnt, I used soya milk this time, rather than some random plant-based milk. Lo and behold, the milk coagulated as soon as the lemon juice was added, making it thick and lumpy. The official house taste-tester has pronounced these muffins “probably the best cakes you’ve ever made”. They keep well and freeze, but unfortunately don’t seem to last long in our kitchen. I’ve got to go and rustle the third batch this week now!

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