You could easily call me Sugar Queen. I love all of it. Blowpops and MaryJanes, Milkduds, thin mints, blondies and lil debbies and skybars. I love ringdings and yoyos, babyruths, chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter cookies, chunkymonkey straight from the box, applesauce walnut date cake with cream cheese frosting, apple pie, pumpkin pie. I love pumpkin pie. You could give me bittersweet or milk chocolate, jellybellys, rhubarb buckle..I would be happy. I don’t even have to eat it. I could just hold a bag of it and be happy. And applesauce cake. Applesauce cake is my favorite cake. I would always ask my grandmother if she would make it for me on my birthday and she would always say, “of course I will.”

Applesauce walnut date cake

2 cups flour, 2 t soda, 1 t cinnamon, 1/2 t allspice, 1/2 t nutmeg, 1/4 t cloves. Sift the flour before measuring and don’t bang the cup. Swipe the extra flour from the top of the cup with a butter knife. Sift everything together. In a separate bowl: Beat 1 stick soft unsalted butter with 1 cup light brown sugar til smooth. Beat in 2 eggs. Combine with flour mixture. Add 1 cup hot homemade applesauce and mix. Add 1 more cup hot applesauce. Mix til combined. Add 1 cup chopped dates and 3/4 cup broken walnuts. (break them yourself.). Bake in buttered 9 inch round. Or split it between two cake pans. Frost with cream cheese frosting when cool. 1 8 ounces package cream cheese, 1 stick soft butter, nearly 1 box confectioners sugar and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla.