St Patrick's Day and Eggless Irish Tea Cake(A Cake A Week #4)

belated greetings to all for St Patrick's day. hope you wore green, ate green and had lots of fun throughout the day. here the temperatures were below freezing point. but that did not damp our spirits at all. dressed in green the three of us joined a whole lot of enthusiastic people at Rocky Point and cheered the St Patrick's day parade. think our little boy enjoyed it too. by the time we were bound homewards, he started waving at everyone we came across just as the royals, the officials and the enthusiasts did in the parade... so a quick glance on the highlights of the day before i begin rambling about this week's cake....

now the about the cake... to honor the day i decided to bake an Irish Tea Cake this Sunday. of course an eggless version of it. so i scaled this recipe to half and substituting the eggs with applesauce almost followed the recipe to bits. the result was a nice soft and moist tea cake which perfectly complimented my morning cup of  tea. not sure if  it bore much resemblance to the actual Irish Tea Cake after the substitution. nevertheless i was happy  with the bake. I baked the cake in my new spring foam pan and was totally in love with how the cake looked when done.

Probably just dusting the cake with sugar would have been a good idea. but impressed by this carrot cake, I had made 'posh plans' of decorating mine with a white chocolate harp and shamrocks. but things did not work quite well. my harp was too soft to stand by itself and most of the shamrocks were a little out of shape... so at the last moment i decided on a butter-cream frosting and a quick icing with Wilton tip 224 in much the same way as i had done for Week #3. and this is how my cake looked after it was decorated .....

springy... isn't it ?? anyway now the recipe behind the cake..

Adapted from Will Cook for Smiles

ingredients
for the cake 
3/4 cups cake flour

1/4 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup of unsalted butter, softened 

1/2 cup of white sugar
1/2 cup apple sauce
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup of whole milk
1 tbs Greek Yogurt

for the vanilla buttercream frosting
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cup confectioner's sugar
1 tablespoon of milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons whipped cream

what i did

• first i preheated the over to 350 degree F, greased a 6-inch round spring foam  pan and sifted the flour, baking powder, baking powder and salt together and kept it aside.
• then i whipped the butter and sugar together and once the mixture became smooth and light i added the applesauce, vanilla, milk and Greek Yogurt in it and whipped until all the wet ingredients were well combined.
• next i gradually folded in the dry ingredient mixture and whipped the batter until it was smooth.
• then pouring the batter into the prepared spring foam pan and i baked it for 55-60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted came out clean. 
• for the frosting, i simply whipped the listed ingredients together till it felt smooth enough. and after allowing the cake to cool down i frosted it with the prepared frosting and decorated it using Wilton's ready- to-use decorating icing icing tube and Wilton's tip 224. 

so that was my #4 cake of A Cake A Week. For week 5, I have a gorgeous Italian cake in mind.  More on that next week.... Have a great  day !

Sharing this with 
Mix it Up Monday @ Flour Me With Love's, Mop it up Monday @ I should be Mopping the Floor, What’d You Do this Weekend?  @ Tumbleweed Contessa, Bon Vivant #13 - Kids Delight