Spicy Ginger Applesauce Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting

This cake is great, but rich. A little goes a long way. The ration of frosting to cake is too high - I would make 2/3 recipe of frosting.

Very good and quick to come together cake. Following another's suggestion, I made only a half-batch of frosting. I've been storing the cake, un-frosted, at room temperature, frosting in the fridge, and it still tastes perfect after about 5 days-- just frost individual pieces as needed.

I adore applesauce cake, and this is now my very favorite. The fresh and crystallized gingers are a magnificent addition. I also didn't use all the frosting, saved it for something yet to be discovered- as it keeps a couple weeks.

Amazing! Moist, exploding with ginger & spices. 1/2 recipe of frosting was just right. This is a keeper. I used mostly whole wheat pastry flour (a little less than 2 cups) and added just a touch of fresh orange juice to counter the bitterness of whole wheat! My bookclub group raved!

Made cupcakes with this recipe and used pecans instead of crystallized ginger... they were heavenly! After reading the notes I only made 2/3 of the frosting (and still had a few tablespoons left over!) I will definitely be making these again...

I think this is the best cake I've ever made. The complexity of the 3 kinds of ginger is great. I used lime juice and zest rather than the lemon and orange that was called for, and I made the applesauce rather than using canned. The diced crystalized ginger on top of the frosting adds great flavor and texture.

Excellent ginger cake. I cut recipe in half and baked in 8X8" pan. Although I measured half of all ingredients, I accidentally measured full amounts baking soda and baking powder. Cake still baked perfectly! I prepared 1/3 original frosting recipe and still had plenty. I'd bake this again.

Wow! Such a simple cake to make with spectacular results. I followed the recipe exactly except I split the batter in 2 cake pans to make a layered birthday cake. It worked perfectly. I frosted the cake between the layers and on top of the cake with a little frosting to spare. The cake was beautiful, incredibly moist and my guests raved about it. Even those that said they didnt like ginger loved it! This is a must!

This cake is delicious but, as others have noted, the frosting is overwhelming (but tasty). Made it with 2/3 of frosting recipe but that was too much, would reduce to half next time. Also added 1/4 cup chopped pecans to the batter and used some additional chopped pecans to decorate, rather than candied ginger.

Delicious and very adaptable. Skipped the icing, added 1/2 cup toasted chopped walnuts, and subbed in whole wheat pastry flour for half the AP. I also realized halfway in that I had only a cup of applesauce, so I cooked a handful of frowzy-looking baby carrots in some cider, puréed them, and used that to fill out the 2 cups. Still great!

This is a lovely recipe! I made it in a bundt tin and baked for 35 minutes. It was lovely and moist with gorgeous ginger flavours. I noted the previous comments on frosting, but I always like to follow the recipe instructions for my first attempt. I'm glad I did. The swirls of frosting were what made this cake impressive to look at. Everyone said "wow!" And it tasted great to boot! That will be my go-to frosting recipe now.

This is a lovely, keeper recipe. I didn't have cardamom so I upped all the other spices (powdered ginger, cinnamon, allspice) by about a 1/4 teaspoon. FWIW I'm always looking for ways to add nutritional punch so I subbed 1/3 cup flour with 1/3 cup ground flax seed and it turned out great. I plan to make in a bundt cake next for more "company worthy" dessert.

I made this cake with GF flour. I had never used GF flour. The cake came out delicious! No one in the family knew it was GF; no one noticed any flavor change. It was a win.(as usual when you read the comments the cook often substitutes ingredients. I didn’t have crystallized ginger so I used walnuts, I didn’t want a heavy icing so I made a sugar glaze.) Great cake!

Made this for ,y sister’s 77th birthday. I subbed butter (melted) for oil. The only other change I made was baking in 2 layer pans. Greased pans with butter with a little flour around the edges and then parchment paper cut to fit pans. Used every drop of the frosting. Delicious!

I followed the recipe, with the sole exception of making only half the frosting. This cake is fantastic! Light, fluffy, very flavorful. I keep my fresh ginger in the freezer, which made it super easy to grate with a microplane. My only recipe edit for next time will be to chop the crystallized ginger into much smaller pieces, but that may be a personal preference. This recipe is absolutely a keeper! A lovely taste of autumn.