Arlene's World War ll Spice Cupcakes

These cupcakes do not have eggs or butter. The son who submitted the recipe mentions that his mother could not find eggs or butter during the rationing days of World War ll, so made these cupcakes for sweets for her children (all seven!). 

All I had on hand was "golden" raisins, but they plumped up nice and moist as I cooked them on the stovetop. The only spice used is cinnamon, which is actually perfect, in its simplicity. I often find modern spice cupcakes to have too many spices fighting for attention in your mouth.

Warning: the recipe says to bake for 25 to 30 minutes. I always babysit a "first-timer" recipe, and am I glad I was in the kitchen, keeping an eye on the oven! At 16 minutes, the cupcakes were done. Any longer and we would have had crispy cupcakes, I'm afraid.

Assuming that Arlene would not have had butter for the frosting, since she had none for the cupcakes, I chose to make a simple powdered sugar frosting, with a little vanilla extract to compliment the spice. I learned to make powdered sugar frosting from my mom when I was just a toddler and she let me "help" make the Christmas sugar cookies. But that's a story for another blog. Sweet memories!

These cupcakes are not too sweet (the powdered sugar frosting, however, will satisfy your sweet tooth), and taste marvelous! If you are not a "raisin" person, these cupcakes could easily make you a convert. I recommend using the "golden" raisins. Good to take to a church luncheon/supper, or keep on hand for visitors. They freeze well.

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