Cakers -

Everyone loves the recipe for Heavenly Pumpkin Spice Cake by aztomcat

1 package spice cake mix 18.25 oz

1 cup plain white flour

1 cup white sugar

1 4 oz instant vanilla pudding mix

1/3 teaspoon salt

1 cup canned pumpkin

8 oz sour cream

1/2 cup vegatable oil

1/2 cup water

4 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2 tsp cinnamon

Our goal is to make a Caramel Apple Cupcake

    Applesauce spice cupcake

    Filled with apple filling

    Topped with caramel buttercream

    Drizzle homemade caramel

My thinking was to substitute homemade applesauce for the canned pumpkin.  I have done this in the past as a subsitute for oil.  Then I realized there was also oil in the recipe. 

What are your thoughts?  Will the batter be too thin if I keep the oil?

Thanks so much!

paoli96

Hi Paoli96,

From looking at this recipe and substitution you want to make, I would add the1c Applesauce and watch my water.  Start with 1/4c of water to determine the consistency of the batter.  My feeling is that water thins the pumpkin puree in the original recipe.  To replace the pumpkin with a "thin" substitute tells me to cut back on the water itself.   Over all you're not losing any of the flavor components and should end up with a lighter cake than original recipe.  If you find that the Apple flavor is not as prominent as you would like you may want to consider 1t Apple flavoring/extract.  Hope this helps.

Lysa

Dessert.net Cafe

Lysa,

Thank you so much for your ideas.  I did wonder about the water amounts as well.  I never thought about apple flavoring.

Thanks again!

Could you perhaps reduce the applesauce, it'll intensify the flavour of it and evaporate some of the water in the apple sauce. We dont have canned pumpkin here but Im imagining its quite a bit thicker then apple sauce?