I finally tried subbing applesauce for oil in a cake mix

Last weekend I was halfway through making a boxed yellow cake for my niece's birthday and realized I had zero vegetable oil in the pantry. I remembered seeing people online say you can use applesauce instead, so I swapped in a cup of unsweetened applesauce. The cake came out way denser than normal, almost like a coffee cake texture. It was actually pretty good, just not the fluffy birthday cake I was going for. My niece ate two slices without complaining, so I guess it wasn't a total fail. What I learned is that applesauce works fine for moist cakes like spice or carrot, but it's not great for light airy cakes. Has anyone else tried fruit purees in cake mixes and gotten weird results?

2 comments

2 Comments

mason.brian4d ago

Push back on that because I've used applesauce in white and lemon box cakes and they came out fluffy if you beat the batter longer than normal to work more air in. I did three minutes on medium instead of the usual two and it rose just fine, no coffee cake texture at all. Maybe your issue was the brand or using chunky applesauce instead of smooth.

sarah_hart4d ago

The "beat it longer" thing works but only up to a point. It's like how people think you can just add more time to fix anything in baking or cooking, but you're still working with a batter that's missing fat and structure. I've noticed that same shortcut mindset everywhere, like people think if they just crank the mixer or the oven or the timer a little harder it'll solve the real problem. The applesauce swap is a good trick for some things, but it's not a magic bullet for every recipe.