Picnic Chocolate Applesauce Cake

This is a pack-it-up-and-go kind of cake. No frosting to smear, no layers to collapse. Just a moist, spiced chocolate sheet cake with a crunchy topping of sugar, chocolate chips, and nuts that bakes right on. Cut it straight from the pan and it’s ready for the cooler.

Applesauce is the secret ingredient doing most of the work here. Two cups of it replace the liquid in a traditional cake recipe, keeping the crumb incredibly moist while adding a subtle fruit sweetness that blends right into the chocolate and cinnamon. It also means the cake uses relatively little fat for its size.

The cocoa and cinnamon combination in the batter gives this cake a warm, almost Mexican hot chocolate quality. The baking soda reacts with the natural acidity of the applesauce to give the cake its rise, so the batter puffs up quickly once it hits the oven.

Sprinkling the topping on before baking rather than after is what makes this cake picnic-proof. The sugar melts into a thin, slightly crunchy crust, the chocolate chips soften and set, and the nuts toast golden. Everything stays put.

Chef Tips

• Use unsweetened applesauce for better control over the sweetness. Sweetened applesauce can make the cake overly sugary.
• Don’t overmix once the dry ingredients go in. A few streaks of flour are fine. Overmixing toughens the crumb.
• This cake actually tastes better the next day after the flavors meld overnight.

Variations

• Spiced version: Add ground cloves and nutmeg to the batter for a more complex spice cake flavor.
• Peanut butter chips: Swap the chocolate chips for peanut butter chips on top for a chocolate-peanut butter combination.