Glazed Applesauce Cake —rsquo; The One You Make on a Tuesday Just to Feel Like a Person Again

The one-handed cooking post hit ten thousand shares this week and my email inbox has been doing something I have never seen it do, which is fill up. People are writing to say thank you. People are writing to say they cried reading it because they thought they were the only one eating crackers over a baby's head at 11 PM. People are writing recipes. A woman named Deborah from Memphis sent me her slow cooker chicken and dumplings recipe that she made when her twins were born in 1991 and said it got her through six months and I should try it. I am going to try it, Deborah.

June in Chicago means the windows can finally be open, which means the apartment is full of street sounds and neighbor sounds and the sound of the city doing its summer thing, and both babies seem to find this interesting in a way they did not find the radiator sounds interesting. Nora tracks the sounds. Owen attempts to turn his head toward them and sometimes succeeds. We are running at full capacity here.

Ryan had two days off back to back this week, which is rare, and we took the twins to the park for the first time. Just a blanket on the grass, ten blocks from the apartment. Owen lay on his back and looked at the trees above him with the particular attention he gives to things he finds genuinely interesting. Nora attempted to eat the edge of the blanket, which is a developmental milestone of some kind, I am sure of it.

Running on four hours of sleep and the knowledge that quitting is not an option. This is the phrase I keep writing down and then deleting from drafts and then writing again. It is accurate. It is not the whole truth. The whole truth is that I would not trade this for anything, and that I am going to need a very long nap sometime in 2024, and both of these things are completely, simultaneously true.

Between answering emails from people who cried over crackers at 11 PM and watching Owen discover that trees exist, I needed something I could make in one bowl without thinking too hard — something that would sit on the counter and be there for all of us for a few days. Deborah’s slow cooker recipe is on my list, I promise, but this week called for something that smelled like cinnamon while it baked and made the apartment feel a little less like a survival bunker. This glazed applesauce cake is exactly that: forgiving, unfussy, and the kind of thing that tastes like someone was taking care of things even when you were doing it entirely one-handed.

Glazed Applesauce Cake

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 35 minutes | Total Time: 50 minutes | Servings: 12

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups unsweetened applesauce
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp salt
• For the glaze: 1 cup powdered sugar
• 2–3 tbsp whole milk
• 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Preheat and prep. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9x13-inch baking pan and set aside.
2. Cream butter and sugar. In a large bowl, beat softened butter and granulated sugar together until light and fluffy, about 2–3 minutes.
3. Add eggs and applesauce. Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in the applesauce until fully combined. The batter may look slightly curdled — that’s normal.
4. Mix dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt.
5. Combine. Gradually stir the dry ingredients into the wet until just combined. Do not overmix.
6. Bake. Pour batter into prepared pan and spread evenly. Bake for 30–35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
7. Cool. Let the cake cool in the pan on a wire rack for at least 20 minutes before glazing.
8. Make the glaze. Whisk together powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla until smooth and pourable. Add milk one tablespoon at a time to reach your preferred consistency.
9. Glaze and serve. Drizzle glaze over the cooled cake and let it set for 5 minutes before cutting into squares.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 280 | Protein: 3g | Fat: 9g | Carbs: 47g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 185mg