Mayonnaise Cake

Here is an email Barbara received and wanted to share this recipe.
"Barbara, I look forward to reading your messages and sharing your wisdom and wit with my friends and relatives. Some of your words have put poems into my mind and I thank you for that. Today's, however, recalled a recipe I got over 40 years ago from the lady who was my mother-in-law. She called it "Mayonnaise Cake" but it actually was made with Miracle-Whip (the only mayo she bought!). When I read the ingredients in your Depression Cake the 1 cup of shortening brought me up short and it was an "aha moment". - Terry W."

Barbara was wondering if others of you might have "hard times" recipes like this or like the well known Ritz Mock Apple Pie.

Mayonnaise Cake

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 cup mayonnaise or Miracle Whip
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup raisins (soak in boiling water to cover for 5 minutes then drain)
1/2 cup chopped nuts
2 small to medium apples diced

Beat all ingredients except raisins, nuts and apples at high speed for 2 minutes. Add the raisins, nuts and apples. Mix well and pour into a greased and floured 9" square pan.
Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes, or until done.

You can also make a chocolate cake out of this by adding 3/4 cup cocoa and omitting the spices (cinnamon, allspice, cloves, nutmeg), raisins, nuts and apples.

(I remember my mother finding this recipe in a magazine back in the 60's to make a chocolate cake using mayonnaise and being a person who never like mayo I think I swore to her it tasted "different" and didn't want to eat it. I'm sure if I didn't know it was in there I never would have been able to tell any difference. Kids!)