Apple Spice Cake with Caramel Icing

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup honey
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. dried ginger
• 1/2 tsp. fresh grated nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp. ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp. ground allspice
• 1/4 tsp. unrefined sea salt
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 apple, skinned and chopped into small pieces

Icing

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup whole milk or cream
• 4 tbsp. unsalted butter
• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• 1/4. tsp. unrefined sea salt

Preparation:

Cake

1. Pre-heat oven to 350˚ and have all ingredients at room temperature before starting.
2. Grease and flour a 8×8 square baking pan or a 9″ round cake pan. I’d also recommend lining the bottom of the pan with parchment paper.
3. In a large bowl beat butter until light and creamy, then add honey and beat for a couple minutes more.
4. Next add one egg at a time to butter mixture beating well. If your butter starts to have a curdled look to it, don’t worry, that’s fine, it will all come together fine at the end.
5. In a small bowl, mix together all of your dry ingredients. In a second bowl mix together your buttermilk and applesauce. Starting with your dry ingredients, alternate back and forth adding dry ingredients and then wet ingredients. It should be 1/3 dry, 1/2 wet, 1/3 dry, 1/2 wet, 1/3 dry.
6. Fold in the chopped apple.
7. Spread cake batter in pan and bake for approx. 25 minutes or until a toothpick stuck into center of cake comes out clean. Depending on how you are serving the cake, it can be left in the pan to cool.
8. Slice the cake right before serving.