Impress your guests this fall with caramel-glazed ginger applesauce cake

Spoiler alert: The decadent recipe shared at the end of this column is not low-calorie, low-fat, or low-carb. It is just … well … sensational.

Ruth Reichl is one of my favorite people.

If you are not familiar with Reichl, here is a brief biography: She was the restaurant critic for the Los Angeles Times (1990-1993) and then the renowned restaurant critic for The New York Times (1993-1999), and finally Gourmet magazine’s editor (1999-2009).

I own almost every book (seven) Reichl has written and have made some of her recipes. They are always well-written and totally reliable.

A couples’ group that we loosely call The Five Chefs — the guys love to cook, and their partners love eating what they make — recently met for dinner. Since it was fall, I volunteered to make Ruth Reichl’s Gingered Applesauce Cake Glazed with Caramel for dessert.

I turned to Reichl’s cookbook “My Kitchen Year: 136 Recipes That Saved My Life” (Random House), which I had used 10 years ago to make a cake for a dinner party. After that party, I had no cake to take home. Darn. I decided this would be my (hopefully impressive) contribution for The Five Chefs.

I changed several things for this recipe to make it more mine.

Reichl uses vegetable oil instead of butter for her cake. I do not use vegetable (seed) oils anymore, instead using fruit oils like olive oil, coconut oil or avocado oil. For this cake, I went with olive oil. Depending on the brand, olive oil can have a buttery note.

Reichl’s recipe called for regular flour, and I went with my current flour favorite: organic einkorn flour. According to einkorn.com, einkorn is the oldest known wheat and is “considered man's first wheat.”

Freshly grated ginger makes this a special and flavorful cake. I grated my fresh ginger using a microplane, turning the ginger into a soft and very mixable paste.

Most folks do not know this: Many “natural” applesauces are actually sweetened some with high fructose corn syrup. I used an organic applesauce with no flavoring (like cinnamon) or sweetening, just cooked and pureed apples. Read the label.

The caramel glaze is made with a cup of heavy whipping cream. I used organic whipping cream and organic brown sugar.

Did the Five Chefs like my version of Rechl’s cake?

There was nary a crumb left on the 10 dessert plates, and some guests used their fingers to clean up the caramel glaze. Definitely a winner. Thanks, Ruth.

• Don Mauer welcomes questions, comments and recipe makeover requests. Write to him at 1leanwizard@gmail.com.

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Gingered Applesauce Cake with Caramel Glaze

For the cake

2 cups all-purpose, unbleached flour (I used organic einkorn flour)

1½ teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons (Diamond Crystal) kosher salt (or 1 teaspoon table salt)

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

2 large eggs

1 cup granulated sugar

½ cup light brown sugar, lightly packed

1½ cups unsweetened, unflavored natural applesauce (organic preferred)

2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger

⅔ cup extra virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

For the glaze

1 cup heavy whipping cream (organic, preferred)

1 tablespoon light corn syrup

½ cup brown sugar, lightly packed

¼ teaspoon (Diamond Crystal) kosher salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

Place the oven rack in the lower-middle position and begin heating to 350°F. Butter and flour a 12-cup Bundt cake pan and set aside.

Add flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and cloves to a medium mixing bowl, whisking together until combined. Set aside.

Break the eggs into a large mixing bowl. Whisk in the sugars until the sugar dissolves. Add grated ginger and applesauce, whisking until smooth. Add and mix in the oil and vanilla until smooth. Add and gently stir in the flour mixture until well incorporated. Transfer the batter to the prepared Bundt pan. Bake for 45 minutes, until the cake bounces back when you carefully press your finger into it.

Place the Bundt pan on a wire rack and cool the cake for 15 minutes before turning it out on a wire rack and allowing it to cool.

Make the glaze: Place a small, heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium-high heat and add the cream. Whisk in the corn syrup, brown sugar, and salt, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and continue to boil for about 15 minutes, whisking every few minutes.

When the glaze has come together into a smooth, thick (pourable) caramel, remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla.

For easier cleanup, place a piece of wax paper on a cake platter and transfer the cooled cake to the wax paper.

Using a soup spoon, spoon the sauce over the top of the cake.

Serves 16.

Nutrition values per serving: 310 calories (44% from fat), 15.2 g fat (4.9 g saturated fat), 42 g carbohydrates), 28.4 g sugars, 0.7 g fiber, 2.8 g protein, 47 mg cholesterol, 407 mg sodium. SaltSense: Omitting the added salt reduces the sodium per serving to 137 mg.

— Adapted from “My Kitchen Year: 136 Recipes That Saved My Life,” by Ruth Reichl (Random House)