I'm going to get a little reminiscent here; this cake means a lot to me. When I was first leaping off the gluten train, I felt lost and overwhelmed. First I had to mourn the loss of conventional baked goods, then I had to figure out how to make GF baked goods. This led to much kitchen trauma. Gluten-free living wasn't as well publicized 5 years ago (forget about those poor people who had to go GF 20+ years ago! They had to search high and low for info.) Even in the last 2 years, I have seen leaps and bounds in availability in products and awareness in lifestyle.
So after much confusion regarding mixing flours and figuring out substitutions, I started baked away and failing. Not just failing- failing wildly! Unbaked cakes. Burned on the outside cakes, undone in the middle. Brick heavy baked goods. Tasteless. Odorless. Odor-full.
Frustrated, I reached out on message boards to experienced GF bakers for help and consolation. One genius baker suggested a fix to my unbaked cake debacle: She used bundt pans for cakes because there was no center, so everything baked fully and well. Looking back, I'm sure there was a scientific fix to this disaster, but I thought that was a brilliant idea! I bought a bundt pan and tried again. Success! Happiness flooded my tired, frustrated GF body, and I nearly cried. It was the moment I realized I could do this. I could bake GF, and it would be okay. Everything would be okay.
This Pumpkin-Applesauce Bundt Cake is the very first cake recipe I made-up (based on a basic regular cake recipe) and it not only baked beautifully, it tasted fantastic. In fact, it's my highest rated public posted recipe on Food.com. It was the first time I felt truly proud of making something from scratch. This cake defines the beginning of my GF journey.
As an added bonus, I recently had the opportunity of sharing this cake recipe on the brilliant site Eating Rules which marked another one of my firsts: a guest post.
So get ready to bake up and enjoy this moist, delicious superstar. Feel free to add some festive chocolate glazing for a fantastic Halloween treat!
NOTE: Do NOT try and make this cake in any regular pan. Because of its moisture level, it will only cook normally in a bundt pan.
Pumpkin Applesauce Bundt Cake
Ingredients:
2 cups sugar (I've been using Coconut Sugar these days, but any will do)
2 cups cooked/canned pure pumpkin
1 cup unsweetened natural applesauce
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
4 eggs
2 cups any all purpose gluten-free flour mix (I like to use a sorghum mix, yay whole grains!)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder (corn-free, Hain Pure Foods is great)
2 tsp cinnamon
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a large bowl, beat eggs until fluffy.
Blend in sugar, pumpkin, applesauce, and oil by hand or with a mixer on low just until combined. Do NOT overmix!
Add all dry ingredients, one at a time, blending together.
Pour batter into a greased, large bundt pan and bake for 1 hour.
Check with a toothpick/knife to make sure it's cooked through, cool, and enjoy!
Don't forget to freeze left-overs, wrapping in parchment paper before storing.
I hope this cake brings you as much joy as it brought me :)
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