Easy Sourdough Applesauce Cake [with sourdough discard]

This delightful recipe combines the tangy flavor of sourdough discard with the sweet and comforting taste of applesauce in a moist and tender cake. It's the perfect way to use up your excess sourdough discard while creating a delicious treat for any occasion. You'll need around a cup of applesauce for this recipe (which is 250g).

I swear this cake smells like fall (along with pumpkin spice lattes) ... but it's really perfect at any time of year! It's so simple, even my kids love making this one. You can use store bought unsweetened applesauce or homemade applesauce for this cake - and you literally need one large bowl which means less washing up!

If you love baking fall inspired sourdough discard recipes with your sourdough starter, you might also love this sourdough apple cake recipe, these sourdough applesauce muffins, these sourdough apple and cinnamon muffins or these sourdough carrot cake muffins.

Why You'll Love This Sourdough Applesauce Cake

There are so many reasons to make this sourdough applesauce cake ... it's hard to stop at just one! This cake is a delightful way to repurpose your sourdough discard, infusing it with the comforting flavors of applesauce, cinnamon, and nutmeg. With its moist texture and a hint of tang from the sourdough, it's sure to become a favorite among friends and family. 

• It's a great way to use discarded sourdough starter without wasting any of that precious fermentation (just like these other sourdough discard recipes)
  
• It combines all the spicy fall flavors you love, in a simple, one bowl recipe (just like this sourdough banana bread)
  
• You can bake it and ice it in the pan - how easy is that? 
  
• The sourdough starter, Greek yogurt and olive oil ensure this is a super moist cake
  
• Serve it dusted in icing sugar for a simple afternoon treat or with sweetened whipped cream for a delicious dessert.

Sourdough Starter or Sourdough Discard?

You can use either sourdough discard or active sourdough starter in this gorgeous fall inspired cake - it really doesn't matter too much.

The only caveat here is that you shouldn't use sourdough discard if it's old and sour as this will give your applesauce cake an unpleasant flavor. You can learn more about how long sourdough discard lasts here.

How To Make Sourdough Applesauce Cake

Making this sourdough applesauce cake is super easy - you'll just need a bowl and a spatula.

1. Preheat oven to 170C (338F). Grease a cake pan with butter and set prepared pan aside. I've used a square pan 10" x 10" or 22.5cm x 22.5cm.
   
2. In a large mixing bowl add all of the dry ingredients - all purpose flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger. Mix together until well combined.
   
3. In the centre of the dry ingredients, create a well and add all of the wet ingredients to it - sourdough starter, egg, olive oil, Greek yogurt, applesauce and vanilla (it's better if wet ingredients are at room temperature, but it's not essential).
   
4. Stir the wet ingredients together in the well and then combine with the dry ingredients to form a batter (it's easiest to do this by hand with a spatula or wooden spoon, but you can use an electric mixer on medium speed if you prefer).
   
5. Pour the cake batter into the greased cake pan.
   
6. Bake for 40 minutes at 170C (338F). You can check the cake is done by inserting a skewer in the centre. If it comes out clean, you can remove it from the oven. It's ok if it needs a few more minutes to cook through.
   
7. Allow the cake to cool in the pan (you can transfer to a cooling rack if you prefer, but it will cool just fine in the pan - and it's one less thing to wash up).
   
8. Frost with vanilla yoghurt glaze or dust with powdered sugar to serve.

Making The Vanilla Yogurt Glaze

Combine the Greek yogurt, vanilla extract and powdered sugar. Whisk together until glossy (you can do this by hand, or with a stand mixer). Pour over the cooled cake while still in the tin and sprinkle with ground cinnamon or cinnamon sugar.

Flavor Variations to Sourdough Applesauce Cake

​While this warm and cosy sourdough discard applesauce cake will delight your tastebuds just as it is, there are also some variations and additions you can make to change it up:

• add 100g of chopped walnuts or pecans to the dry ingredients before you add the wet ingredients.
  
• add 100g of raisins or sultanas to the dry ingredients before you add the wet ingredients (this is equivalent to around a half cup of raisins)
  
• you can use pumpkin pie spice or apple pie spice if you prefer, rather than the spices listed in the ingredients.
  
• for a streusel topping to this sourdough applesauce cake, grab the cinnamon pecan streusel topping from this sourdough coffee cake and add it to the applesauce cake before it goes in the oven.
  
• instead of using the yogurt glaze to top the cake, you could use this vanilla cream cheese frosting instead.

Share the sourdough love!