Applesauce cake

I'm sitting here eating cheese, crackers and pickled pears playing on the computer when I remembered I still hadn't posted today's recipe. Last weekend I decided to make a cake with just fruit - no sugar, no oil. I ended up skipping the eggs too. The only fat that comes from the cake is in the Walnuts and the sugar is all fruit based. It's not an overly sweet cake and has that slightly gritty texture of pears. It's rather dense and not very flavorful. That would seem like a poor description for a cake but what I found is this cake is the perfect base to showcase a great topping. Hot out of the oven we served it with a little bailey's irish cream and a few chocolate chips. Today I ate it with a "frosting" of all natural chocolate peanut butter. Add a little rum when the cake first comes out of the oven to help preserve the cake and extend it's shelf life. I put a little cocoa powder in the cake, I'm not sure how much flavor it lends. Feel free to add spices such as ginger and cinnamon to make it more gingerbread like (might be the next version).

Applesauce Cake
3 cups applesauce
6 cups apple or pear juice boiled down to 4 cups
3 cups flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 teas baking soda
1/2 teas baking powder
2 TB dark rum (or vanilla extract)
1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts
Extra Rum, optional
Mix apple sauce and juice. Add flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and baking powder. Mix well. Add extract or rum and walnuts. Mix until incorporated. Pour into greased 9x13 pan (we used a cooking spray). Bake at 350 for 60 to 75 minutes until a toothpick comes out mostly clean. The cake is so moist that the toothpick will not be completely clean. Drizzle over rum (or other alcohol). Serve hot or cold.