Applesauce Cake with Apple Cinnamon Buttercream

I was a little worried that this recipe (found on allrecipes.com) didn't have any eggs, but it turned out fine.  It's moist and spicy and delicious and I love that it's not a full-sized cake!  Only thing I'd change next time is to reduce the amount of salt to 1/2 teaspoon.  The original recipe called for raisins, which I omitted.

CAKE:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp cloves

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup unsweetened applesauce

Preheat the oven to 350^F.  Grease and flour a 9-inch square pan.  In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, cloves and salt.  Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Dissolve baking soda into applesauce and mix into creamed butter.  Add flour mixture.  Mix until smooth.  

Pour into the prepared pan and bake at 350^F for 40-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

Cool completely.  Frost, if desired.  This cake would be fine without frosting....maybe a spinkle of powdered sugar.

FROSTING:

1/4 cup butter, softened

2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

2-3 Tbsp apple juice or cider

Beat the butter, sugar, cinnamon and enough juice to make a spreadable frosting.