Theresa's applesauce Cake

Friendship can be dynamic.  When I was a child, I thought my best friend and I would be best friends forever.  We aren't.  Nothing dramatic happened.  My family just happened to move when I was in Grade 8 and well, distance sometimes means we move on, not for the better or the worse.  Change happens.  As an adult ( wow, I just called myself an adult.), I have come to realize that people come into our lives for different reasons.  Sometimes the friendship is a lasting one.  Sometimes it's a short-lived one, a couple of years or so.  You find you need each other mutually, then life changes and life moves on.  I am, of course, grateful for those long-lasting friendships but those short-lived ones are also often pretty special.  Although they may have come to a quiet end, they still leave something behind.

About 12 years ago while I was going to school in Toronto, I worked at a popular diner serving tables.  ( Don't underestimate my age from that statement.  I was more or less a professional student for quite awhile.  Just ask my parents and husband.)  I worked with Theresa, a woman about ten years older than me but so much wiser really.   She was funny.  She introduced me to Leonard Cohen and yoga.  She showed me areas of the city that I may not have had the nerve to see by myself.  She made my experience of living "in the big city" so much easier than I thought it would be.  When I graduated, I stopped working at the diner and eventually moved out of Toronto.  And that was kind of it.  I sometimes wish the friendship had continued but things can't be changed.

  At some point during our friendship, Theresa gave me a recipe for applesauce cake.  It's a simple, yummy, moist, all-in-one-bowl kind of cake.  I still have the piece of paper she wrote it on.  I want to share it because I think it should be shared.  Let me know how you like it.

Theresa's Applesauce Cake

1/2 cup sunflower oil
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups unsweetened applesauce
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Oil and flour an 8 inch cake pan.

Mix oil and sugar well.  Add applesauce and mix.  Add dry ingredients and beat until smooth.  Pour into prepared cake pan.  bake for 45-50 minutes.

That's it.  Pretty simple but let me know if something isn't clear.

I'm going to end this post with a picture of two little owls.

Acorn owls, that is, in a little felted wool nest.  More wonky than wise but we love them anyways.