Why Haven't You Made This Before?

When your 18 year old son asks that question he makes you feel like you've concealed his real identity from him all his life. "Well, uh, I used to make it all the time, but I guess that was before you were born, like 30 years ago."
So here it is folks, from the depths of my recipe collection which I just threw out. 39 years worth of scraps of paper, back of envelopes and index cards, newspaper and magazine clippings . . . gone! Some were so smeared and faded or covered with grease stains they couldn't be read anyway. Some were in handwriting of loved ones now departed or friends long since moved away. It was painful but I had to admit I hadn't looked in those little boxes for at least a decade. Easier to Google it than dig through that mess. But here is a lone survivor, resurrected in time to hear my youngest say after the first bite: "Why haven't you made this before?"

Applesauce Cake

( a good dessert for those times when you are out of eggs)

1/2 cup butter

1 cup sugar

2 cups flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. cloves

1 1/2 c. unsweetened applesauce

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup craisins

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray non stick coating on 9X9 pan. Cream butter and sugar together in mixer. In a separate bowl combine dry ingredients. Measure the applesauce and stir vanilla into it. Then add to the cream mixture alternately with the flour mixture.

Bake for 35 minutes. Cool in the pan on a rack. Frost with Carmel Cream Cheese Frosting, a more recent addition since frosting Becca's Rolo Brownies.

Carmel Cream Cheese Frosting

4 oz. softened cream cheese

4 T. softened butter

2 T. carmel topping

1 cup powdered sugar

Beat the cream cheese and butter till smooth. Add carmel and sugar. Frost cooled cake.