The Vintage Recipe
I came across a recipe for Raisin Cake in a narrow column of advertisements in the October 1926 issue of The Farmer’s Wife magazine. The recipe was sponsored by the Crescent Manufacturing Company of Seattle, Washington, makers of the wildly successful imitation maple flavoring branded Mapleine. Growing up my mother always made homemade pancake syrup using Mapleine which was the product’s most widely known “back of the box” recipe. I was interested in trying Mapleine in a different application so I tried the recipe printed in the advertisement. The cake was amazing!
Raisin Cake
- ½ cup shortening
- 1-1/3 cups sugar
- 2 eggs well beaten
- 1 cup seedless raisins
- 1/3 cup walnuts
- 1 cup hot applesauce, strained
- 2 cups flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp nutmeg
- ¼ tsp cloves
- ½ tsp Mapleine
Sift flour, spices, and soda. Cream shortening beat in sugar, eggs, chopped raisins, and nuts. Add flour alternately with the applesauce. Bake in greased layer pans in a moderate oven.
Mapleine Icing
- ¾ cup sugar
- 3 Tbsp cold water
- 1 egg white
- ½ tsp Mapleine
Put sugar, water, and unbeaten egg white in a double boiler, place over boiling water and beat with an egg beater for six minutes. Remove from fire; add Mapleine. Beat until thick enough to spread.
My Take on the Recipe
I followed the recipe as written except for using butter instead of shortening and I added a half teaspoon of salt. I even heated up my home-canned applesauce – a curiosity of this recipe (more about that later). I also substituted pecans for the walnuts. I baked the cake in nine-inch round pans and set my oven at a moderate temperature of 350 degrees.
Once cooled, I began preparing the Mapleine Icing–which failed. I’m not sure why but it never became a fluffy frosting consistency. It stayed at a runny sugary stage. Perhaps it was because I used an electric mixer instead of the prescribed egg beater. Ha! So, I decided to try a different icing recipe all together—Coconut Pecan Frosting (recipe below)—a mid-century recipe that I typically use for Oatmeal Raisin Cake. It was a match made in heaven!
Hot Applesauce?
Now a word about hot applesauce—Why? Perhaps it was thought that the cake would rise higher or have a lighter texture if the applesauce was warm. Or maybe the cake would bake faster because it was warm when it went in the oven. I don’t know for sure, but with some research, I found only one other recipe that called for hot applesauce (below). Most vintage recipes just called for applesauce.
Going in the “Tried and True” Recipe File
In the end, I ended up with a moist moderately-dense raisin cake that was very flavorful. The cake recipe for Mapleine Raisin Cake is going into my “tried and true” dessert recipe file alongside the Coconut Pecan Frosting recipe because I will be making it again soon! Below I have created a printable recipe for both cake and frosting. I have included the salt measurement that I used as it balances the flavor of the batter. –Enjoy!
Elaine
Cream butter and sugar. Blend in eggs. 
Add hot applesauce alternately with dry ingredients. 
End with dry ingredients. 
Fold in nuts and raisins. 
Divide batter into two 9″ pans. 
Bake at 350* for 20–25 minutes. 
Allow cake to cool. 
Frost with Coconut Pecan Frosting 
YUM! 
Mapleine Raisin Cake with Coconut Pecan Cake
Mapleine Raisin Cake-1926
Ingredients
- ½ cup butter, softened
- 1-1/3 cups sugar
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 cup hot applesauce
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground nutmeg
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
- ½ tsp Mapleine flavoring
- 1 cup seedless raisins
- 1/2 cup chopped pecans
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350*. Grease and flour (or spray with baking spray) 2 nine-inch round cake pans; set aside.
- Sift flour, spices, baking soda and salt; set aside.
- Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs; blend well.
- Blend in dry ingredients alternately with applesauce, ending with dry ingredients. Stir in Mapleine flavoring.
- Fold in raisins and chopped pecans.
- Divide batter between prepared cake pans. Bake for 20–25 minutes or until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean.
- Turn cake onto cooling racks.
- Frost with Coconut Pecan Frosting when cakes are completely cool.
Recipe Compliments of farmerswifemagazine.com
Coconut Pecan Frosting
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter
- 1 cup brown sugar
- Dash of kosher salt
- ½ cup cream or evaporated milk
- 2 cups flaked coconut
- 1 cup chopped pecans
- 1 tsp vanilla
Directions
- In a two-quart saucepan melt butter. Stir in brown sugar and cream.
- Bring mixture to a simmer stirring frequently. Cook for several minutes until sugar is dissolved and mixture thickens slightly.
- Remove from heat and stir in coconut, chopped pecans and vanilla.
- Allow frosting to cool to spreading consistency.
- Recipe makes enough to frost top, sides and between the layers of a nine-inch cake.
Recipe Compliments of farmerswifemagazine.com
FARMER'S WIFE MAGAZINE 
You have a very nice blog. Applesauce strains faster it you warm it. In this time period, most cooks would have made their own applesauce. I just posted a recipe for apple custard pie from that time period that used drained applesauce.
That recipe would have made a nice loaf that is easy to slice and spread butter on it. That is the way my mother and her sisters would eat this type of cake. It would have been something their mother would have made.
Thanks for sharing your recipe and research.
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Thank you for the insight. I like the idea of baking this recipe in a loaf pan–a slice spread with butter would be divine! Thanks for stopping by. I will be getting familiar with your blog as well.
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