Banana Applesauce Cake

Mid-October and the persimmons on the tree in the vacant lot behind my street have turned deep orange and I have been watching them ripen all week from my car when I leave for work in the morning. I do not know who owns the tree or whether anyone ever picks the persimmons. They fall and nobody collects them and every year I think about asking but I never do.

I made an apple butter this week, the slow-cooked kind that goes all day in the slow cooker and fills the apartment with cinnamon and clove and something that makes Biscuit sit in the kitchen looking confused and interested. It started as six pounds of apples, peeled and chopped, with brown sugar and apple cider and cinnamon and nutmeg and allspice and a scrape of vanilla bean. Eight hours on low, then I used my immersion blender to smooth it, then another two hours to thicken. The result was dark and glossy and tasted like October distilled into a jar.

I put six jars of it up for the fall. One for Gloria. One for Tamara. One for DeAnna. Three for my pantry, which I will distribute over the next three months on biscuits and toast and oatmeal and anything else that needs a spoonful of autumn.

Gloria smelled the jar before she tasted it and said this is right. She said her mother made apple butter every October and the smell is exactly the same. I told her I followed my nose more than the recipe. She said that is the right way to follow something. I think she was talking about more than apple butter.

After the apple butter was jarred and the slow cooker was soaking in the sink, I still had apples on the counter and the apartment still smelled like cinnamon, and it felt wrong to let that go. I had two very ripe bananas going soft on the counter beside them, and the two things together just made sense — a cake that carried the same warmth as the jars I’d been filling all day. This banana applesauce cake is exactly that: unhurried, spiced, the kind of thing you slice and bring to someone the same way you’d bring a jar.

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 50 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes | Servings: 12

Ingredients

2 very ripe bananas, mashed (about 3/4 cup)
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 large eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice

Instructions

Preheat and prepare. Heat your oven to 350°F. Grease a 9x13-inch baking pan or a 9-inch round cake pan with butter or nonstick spray and set aside.
Mash and combine wet ingredients. In a large bowl, mash the bananas until nearly smooth. Whisk in the applesauce, eggs, oil, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla until well combined.
Whisk dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice until evenly blended.
Fold together. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir gently with a spatula until just combined — a few streaks of flour are fine. Do not overmix or the cake will be dense.
Bake. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread it evenly. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the top is deep golden brown.
Cool and serve. Let the cake cool in the pan on a wire rack for at least 15 minutes before slicing. Serve warm or at room temperature, plain or with a spoonful of apple butter spread on top.

Nutrition (per serving)

Banana Applesauce Cake — The Jar That Inspired One More Thing to Bake