and now, i can BAKE.

Blog, meet my new favorite toy:

Oh yes.  I have a Kitchen Aid.  And she is red and beautiful, and entices me to bake.  So on Saturday I decided it was time to give her a spin, and I decided to try Applesauce Spice Cake, from my new dessert book Good Housekeeping Best-Loved Desserts.

If you can spot the problem I was about to have making this from a look at this ingredients, I'll give you a gold star.

Yayy new toys (and if you are reading this and had a hand in giving me these gifts, THANK YOU AGAIN).
First, we mixed the flour and spices... (in my new bowl with my new whisk!)

And THEN we busted out the brand new Kitchen Aid (yep, new spatula to help me, haha).   First I mixed the butter and sugars, and then eggs and applesauce.

Not looking so appetizing yet, but it will, I promise.  Next we added in the flower mixture and raisins. YUM!

Looking delicious!  Now, transfer that into the square baking pan (also a new toy)...

Then into the oven...

Let cool completely, then dust with powdered sugar

Cut, and enjoy

Verdict: deliciousness.  Everyone who had it at the party loved it.  Some requested that I make it again soon.
But, this is a blog about cooking (and baking?) so I have to critique it as well.  The cake was very thick, so the pieces were huge.  This is at least partially because I was supposed to use a 9 inch square baking pan, which I didn't have, so it went into an 8 inch square baking pan.  Even so, I think it would have been really thick in a 9 inch square pan!
Also, if you saw above that I had two things of Confectioner's sugar, you might have wondered why.  That's because I thought one of the boxes I picked up was actually dark brown sugar.  Oops.  That's not terrible, I just used light brown sugar and added some molasses to it.  Until I realized I also SOMEHOW had no regular granulated sugar.  Who doesn't have granulated sugar in their house???  So, I had to use, um, even more light brown sugar.  No one complained, but I don't know how different the cake tasted because of this.  The last thing I should note is that I found it really challenging to pour ingredients into the mixer while it was mixing.  And then when I was done I realized that I had a plastic shield with an opening to pour in ingredients EXACTLY FOR THAT REASON.  Kitchen aid 1, Sara 0.

Hope you enjoyed my first installment of "Sara learns to bake and plays with the Kitchen aid" because there is definitely more to come!