Raisin Cakelets

A plain baking-powder cupcake batter dressed with raisins and almonds. Note before you start that the ingredient list as printed is incomplete.

• Missing quantitiesThe process calls for creamed Cottolene and sugar, but neither appears in the ingredient list; the line appears to have been dropped in the original setting. Whatever amounts you settle on are an inference, not what the page says.
• CottoleneA cottonseed-oil shortening sold by the N. K. Fairbank Company, no longer made. Substitute an equal measure of vegetable shortening, or butter if you want more flavour, accepting that butter will brown the cakelets faster.
• Moderate oven350F. At that temperature twelve to fifteen minutes is right for cakes in small individual tins; a standard muffin tin will want closer to eighteen to twenty.
• Individual tinsGem pans or small fluted tins. Modern mini-muffin tins are the closest match; a standard 12-cup muffin tin works with the longer bake.
• Dredging the raisinsThe tablespoon of flour tossed with the cut raisins is functional rather than a flourish: it is intended to keep them suspended rather than sinking into a band at the bottom.
• Seeded raisinsThen this meant raisins with the seeds removed, mostly muscats; seeding could be done by hand or with a raisin seeder, and ready-seeded raisins were also sold. Commercial seedless raisins do the job for you; still cut them in pieces, as the recipe directs.
• Blanched almondsPour boiling water over whole almonds, let stand a few minutes, slip the skins off and cut lengthwise into slivers. Packaged sliced or slivered almonds are an acceptable stand-in.
• Sugar on topPowdered sugar sprinkled before baking sets into a thin crust rather than staying white. If you want a visible dusting, add a second sprinkle after the cakelets cool.