Old People Cake

So Sunday, I was looking for something to bake while Hubs was napping, and I was trying to use up some ingredients I had around the house.  I do that a lot.  This time the ingredient I wanted to get gone was a bag of off-brand prunes.  They were still viable as a food source, but they weren't the soft yummy prunes I like.  They were drier and harder.  Thus, off I went to allrecipes.com.  None of their recipes for prunes sounded good, so I tried searching recipes for raisins (cuz, hey, prunes are just big raisins anyway, right?) 

I found a recipe that looked good for raisin cake.  :shrug:  Looked simple enough, and I'm all about simple.  So I followed the recipe - substituting a cup of chopped prunes for a cup of the raisins.  Turned out pretty good if you ask me.

When Hubs got up, I told him what I'd made and he said "Oh, Old People Cake".  And that's how the recipe got it's name. 

Old People Cake

2 cups raisins (or 1 cup raisins and 1 cup diced prunes)
4 cups water
1 cup margarine
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 cup walnuts (optional)

Grease and flour a 9x13" pan.  In a large saucepan, combine dried fruit and water.  Boil for 10 minutes.  Remove from heat and stir in butter and sugars.  Stir until butter is melted and sugars are incorporated.  Start preheating oven to 350 degrees F while mixture cools.  Mix dry ingredients in large bowl.  Once oven is preheated - about ten minutes cooling time for the raisin/water/sugar mix - stir wet mixture into dry mixture.  Stir until smooth.  Stir in nuts, if you use them.  Pour batter into pan.  Bake at 350F for 35-45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Cut and eat.  Or serve warm with ice cream.  (Would probably be awesome with cream cheese frosting, too.)