Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice

That's what this dessert is made of! One of my favorite things about fall is the return of my beloved Honey Crisp apples, which you can only find for a limited time once a year. A cross between the Macoun and the Honey Gold apples, the sweetness of Honey Crisp surpasses any other variety in my opinion. And the sweeter something is the better it is! At least that's what I think. I usually don't even use them in any recipes because they taste so good just on their own they don't need any extra sugar or spices to make them taste good. I did use them in this recipe for Applesauce Spice Cake since I already had them on hand, but normally, I would use a Gala or Cortland since there are so many additional ingredients compared to the one fresh apple the recipe calls for.

As I described to my husband while preparing the cake, "This smells like fall in a bowl!" The cake uses fresh apple, prepared applesauce, cinnamon, and raisins in the batter and bakes into a very dense cake. And I like dense. None of these wimpy, airy, light desserts for me! The frosting complements the cake well since it also uses cinnamon in the frosting which ties the flavors together nicely. It was supposed to be a browned butter frosting, but I don't usually stock butter in my fridge, I'm more of a margarine girl, so it kind of turned into a basic butter(margarine)cream with cinnamon flavor. But it still tastes wonderful! And going the extra mile for the homemade frosting totally makes all the difference! Trust me!