Applesauce Cake

This is from the recipe drawer of Maxine.  Don't you love to see a recipe that looks like this... stained with ingredients and difficult to read... you know that this recipe has been made over and over... a winner for sure!

Maxine gave me this recipe several years ago and told me that it was her Grandma Schlaeffli's recipe.  I can tell that this is not Maxine's handwriting, so I am guessing that it may actually be written by Grandma Schlaeffli.  What a treasure!

1 1/2 cups applesauce
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup raisins
1 cup nuts
1 egg
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons soda, dissolved in a little hot water

Bake about 45 min. or more
375 degrees

So here lies the problem with many of these handwritten recipes from way back when.  There are no instructions.  So what we need to do is rely on our own knowledge of other recipes... mixing the wet ingredients, then the dry, and finally adding the dry to the wet.  This would be my first way to try this recipe.  But it may be one of those that you might have to make a couple of times and try out a couple of ways to see how it works best for you.

The other thing that I like to think about is the age of the recipe.  Maxine's Grandma Schlaeffli was probably making this recipe at the turn and in the first few decades of the 20th century. I would imagine her making this without the use of an electric mixer, so you might want to just try mixing this batter together in a bowl with a wooden spoon.  Along those same lines, she might have used whatever nuts she had available, so you could try it with pecans one time, walnuts another time, etc.  See which you like better.  I'm sure that this is the way we ended up with untold numbers of different recipes for the same items... everyone doing just one little trick different to make it their own.  Maybe some day it won't be Grandma Schlaeffli's Applesauce Cake...  your granddaughter may call it Grandma (insert your name here) Applesauce Cake.  No greater tribute of respect than having food named after you!