Apple Spice Cake with Praline'esque Frosting

 Apple Spice Cake

Whoa baby!  This cake (not raw or vegan) was a hit on my mom's birthday!  It was a totally new recipe for me, but I found it on my most trust-worthy recipe website, Epicurious.com.  It was a strange cake in some ways.  You make it in a spring form pan, but I think you could also make it in a bundt pan.  The "frosting" is basically a caramel candy type frosting.  It very much resembles a praline without the pralines!  You know, that melt in your mouth sugar???  Oh yeah, that's the one....

Ingredients For Cake:

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp. ginger
• 1/4 tsp. clove
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 cup turbinado sugar
• 1/2 cup butter Crisco
• 2 tsp. light rum
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup + 1 Tbs. apple sauce
• 1 tsp. vanilla

For Frosting:

•  3 Tbs. salted butter
• 1 cup turbinado sugar
• 6 Tbs. evaporated milk
• 1 tsp. light rum
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 1/4 cup confectioners sugar
  

Instructions:
Place oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F. Butter pan and set aside.
Whisk together flour, baking soda, spices, and salt in a bowl.

Beat together sugar, butter crisco, vanilla, and rum with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until combined well, then add egg and beat until pale and fluffy, 2 - 3 minutes with a stand mixer or 5 to 6 minutes with a handheld. Reduce speed to low and add dry ingredients, mixing until combined well. Add applesauce, and mix until combined well.

Spread batter evenly in spring form pan and bake until a wooden pick or skewer comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes.

Cool cake in pan on a rack 10 minutes, then remove side of pan and cool completely.

For the Frosting:
(*make sure to measure out your evaporated milk all together before hand; you're basically making a caramel here, so you need to be quick with the milk)

Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a 1 1/2- to 2-quart heavy saucepan, then add sugar and evaporated milk and simmer, stirring constantly until sugar is dissolved, about 4 minutes.


Remove from heat and whisk in rum, vanilla, salt, and remaining tablespoon butter.  Then whisk in confectioners sugar 1 tablespoon at a time (*I used an electric hand mixer to do this right in the pan). Cool to warm, about 20 minutes, then pour over cooled cake.