January 29th: applesauce cake, pork tenderloin en croûte

Winners all around today. All my Saturday plans were cancelled, which meant I had a lazy day to spend at home. It's been awhile and I've been wanting one. Lazy means doing load after load of laundry, of course. O and I spent our Saturday morning making applesauce cake, a recipe I pulled out of the Ottawa Citizen in November 2009. I had originally planned to make it for O's birthday in 2010, but didn't, and then this year, when I asked her whether she wanted apple, carrot or chocolate cake for her birthday, surprise, surprise, she chose chocolate. Of course, on the day of, after her cake was made, she told me she wanted strawberry cake. Too little, too late, my dear.


So, applesauce cake. This recipe makes two loaf pan cakes, and I though it might be more like an applesauce loaf, but oh no, this is cake all the way, and it is delicious. Between the three of us (mostly me and O), we ate almost one whole cake over the course of the day. Really, really good. We'll definitely try this one again.

Applesauce Cake

3/4 cup (175 mL) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups (375 mL) sugar
3 eggs
2 cups (500 mL) all-purpose flour, sifted
3/4 cup (175 mL) whole wheat flour*
1 1/2 tsps (7 mL) salt
1 1/2 tsps (7 mL) baking powder
1/2 tsp (2 mL) baking soda
1/2 tsp (2 mL) nutmeg
1/2 tsp (2 mL) cinnamon
114-oz (398 mL) unsweetened applesauce**
3/4 cup (175 mL) chopped walnuts, optional***

Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).

Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Blend in eggs.

In a separate bowl, sift together the dry ingredients. Add to creamed mixture, alternating with applesauce, beating after each addition. If you like, stir in walnuts. Divide batter between 2 greased loaf pans.

Bake for one hour or until done (start checking at the 50 minute mark). Remove and let cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans and putting on rack to cool completely.

Makes 8 servings.

Sugar glaze:

Combine 1/2 cup (125 mL) icing sugar, sifted, with 1 tbsp (15 mL) water. Pour over cakes.

*Whole wheat flour is my addition; the original recipe called for 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour.
**The original recipe called for sweetened applesauce; I don't think the cake needs the added sugar.
***I didn't see this option until I was making the cake, and I didn't have walnuts on hand, so can't vouch for the flavour with their addition.

Olivia sifts.

Blending together wet and dry ingredients.

Finished product!

For supper, I made a Beef Wellington look alike: from January 2004's Chatelaine: Pork tenderloin en croûte. This is pork tenderloin, wrapped in prosciutto, wrapped in puff pastry. Yum yum. The flavouring is Dijon mustard, rosemary, salt and pepper. Simple stuff. I skip all the fussy steps requiring you to make fancy cut-outs to put on top of the pastry, and I used pre-rolled pastry, just because that's what I had. This was a second go-around for us, and definitely a keeper. Delish. We would have eaten the whole tenderloin if I hadn't foreseen that and overloaded our salad bowls and roasted multi-coloured baby potatoes and garlic for the side.

We've been eating with a Doozy candle on the table recently, which Olivia thinks means we're having a fancy supper. This meal was a bit of a fancy supper (but simple, really). Oh, Saturday night, if only you could last forever...

Prior to rolling.

Ready to go in the oven.

Finished product!

Complete meal/fuzzy pic.

Cutest kid in the world/biased mother.