Applesauce cake

When I was just barely a teenager, I saw a television movie that was the beginning of what would become "The Waltons," a long-running television series in the United States. The movie, called "The Homecoming, A Christmas Story," starred Patricia Neal as Olivia Walton, the strong mother of seven children. The film was set on a Christmas Eve during the Great Depression. Olivia spent precious money to buy sugar to make her traditional Christmas applesauce cake. I watch that movie on DVD every year now; it's become one of my holiday traditions.

My first applesauce cake of the season, topped with powdered sugar. Delicious!

I'm not sure I ever had an applesauce cake when I was a kid. We certainly had apple pie, but that's not the same thing. So now I make applesauce cake with the apples from our trees out back, inspired by Olivia Walton. It has become a holiday tradition in our house. This year is not a good year for apples, but I made applesauce last year and froze it. So on Tuesday I thawed out some of the applesauce and made the cake. It includes toasted walnuts from a friend's tree across town. It's not the holiday season yet, and this will not be the last applesauce cake I enjoy this year. That, and a little of Miss Mamie's and Miss Emily's papa's recipe...

UPDATE: Some of you asked for the recipe (for the cake, not the bootleg whiskey), so here it is:

Applesauce Cake

2½ cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar (I use 1½ cups)
1½ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. baking powder
1½ tsp. salt
¾ tsp. ground cinnamon (I use ½ tsp.)
½ tsp. ground cloves
½ tsp. ground allspice
½ cup vegetable oil
½ cup water
1½ cups unsweetened applesauce
2 eggs
1 cup roughly chopped toasted walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease a 9”x13” baking dish.
Combine all ingredients; pour in prepared pan.
Bake 60-65 minutes or until done.