Pioneer
Boiled Raisin Cake
The wartime fruit cake that needed no eggs to spare
When rationing made eggs and butter precious commodities, New Brunswick bakers turned to the boiling method. Raisins simmered in spiced water plump to bursting, and the cooking liquid replaces both eggs and fat in this dense, fragrant cake from the 1941 IODE Fort Monckton cookbook. It keeps exceptionally well — which is precisely what a wartime kitchen required.
Source: IODE Fort Monckton Cook Book, Moncton NB, 1941
Ingredients
- 1 cup raisins
- 1 cup water
- ½ cup sugar
- ¼ cup lard or butter
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp cloves
- ½ tsp nutmeg
- 1½ cups flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
Instructions
- Combine raisins, water, sugar, lard, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Remove from heat and cool completely — at least 30 minutes. Do not rush this step.
- Preheat oven to 325°F (165°C). Grease and flour a 9×5 inch loaf pan.
- Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt.
- Stir the dry ingredients into the cooled raisin mixture until just combined.
- Pour into prepared pan and bake for 50–60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.
- Cool in the pan 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack. This cake improves markedly after a day wrapped in wax paper.
✦ Kitchen Notes
- From the IODE Fort Monckton Cook Book, Moncton NB, 1941.
- No eggs, minimal fat — this was wartime baking at its most resourceful. The raisin liquid does the work that eggs and butter normally would.