It wouldn't be Christmas without Livvy's applesauce cake...

So y'all know I'm a Walton fool.  Always have been, always will be.  I LOVELOVELOVE The Waltons and I've watched "The Homecoming" six times since Thanksgiving, three times this week.  And it's on again tonight.  :)  After the sad, sad events that took place a week ago in Connecticut, I have taken so much comfort in this sweet movie and have been transported to another time when life was simple and people were kind.

So, since I am a Walton fool, I have heard about this applesauce cake since I was four years old.  I've never had it.  I've never made it.  Nobody I know has ever made it.

I decided this was the Christmas that I was going to make Livvy's famous cake.  I got the recipe from Earl Hamner's novel, The Homecoming, and I made it tonight.  

 
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
3-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground cloves
2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch salt
2 cups raisins
1 cup chopped walnuts
2 cups unsweetened applesauce
  


In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Combine the flour, cloves, nutmeg, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Remove 1/2 cup flour mixture to a small bowl; stir in raisins and nuts.

Add remaining flour mixture to the creamed mixture alternately with applesauce, beating well after each addition. Stir in raisin mixture. Pour batter into a greased and floured 10-in. fluted tube pan.Bake at 350° for 65-75 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack to cool completely.

 

It turned out pretty good!  Crunchy on the outside and really moist on the inside.  Not very sweet, though, so two cups of sugar wouldn't be too much.  I know sugar was a luxury during the Depression and I wanted to make it exactly like Mama Olivia did so I followed the recipe to the letter.  

I like it!  And it only took me 41 years to taste it!