Growing up, I loved carrot cake, but with strict conditions; it couldn’t have nuts or raisins of any kind. Essentially, I loved spice cake but because I didn’t know that existed, I continued to eat carrot cake and pick out all the stuff I didn’t like in it. Tedious, I know, but it was worth it to me for those little bites of cake heaven.

Then, I got older and was introduced to zucchini loaf. While good, again, I ran into the problem of picking out the nuts when they were added. (If you can’t tell by now, I really don’t like nuts in my foods.) Eventually, I stopped eating both because I got tired of being picky and saw how disrespectful and wasteful it was.

Now that I’m on my journey to becoming a semi decent baker, I wanted to give spice cake a try. I spent hours one Saturday morning compiling recipes from my cookbooks and favorite blogs until I came up with this one here. This loaf cake is everything I’ve dreamed about and more. Also, because the holidays are coming up, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to incorporate some booze. Don’t worry only a very small amount is dded to the orange glaze, so it won’t get you drunk or even slightest bit buzzed. It is simply added to enhance the orange extract and enhance it does! So, if you are thinking of skipping the glaze, DON’T. It really sets this spice cake apart from any other spice cake you’ve ever tried.

Anyways, let’s stop chatting and let’s start baking!

Bake Time: 32-37 minutes
Yields: 2 loaf cakes

Ingredients

For the Cake
2 1/3 cup flour
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp salt
1 cup milk
1 cup apple sauce
2 large eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp caramel extract

For the Orange Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp brandy
1-2 tbsp milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp orange extract

Special Tools
hand mixer or stand mixer

Instructions

For the Cake

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Combine the dry ingredients in a medium mixing bowl and set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the wet ingredients. Mix for about 30 seconds.
Slowly incorporate the dry ingredients to the wet until mixture becomes a smooth pudding like batter.
Fill loaf pans halfway with batter and bake for 32-37 minutes until the wooden stick comes out clean.
When the cake has cooled, remove from the loaf pan and drizzle with orange glaze.

For the Glaze