Butterless, Eggless, Milkless Cake - cooking recipe

Ingredients

1 cup brown sugar or 1 cup Splenda brown sugar blend
1 1/4 cups water
1/3 cup shortening
1/3 cup raisins
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons water
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

Preparation

Bring to a boil the first eight ingredients. Cool. Add remaining ingredients and mix together.
Bake in an 8 x 8 pan at 350 degrees until a toothpick comes out clean. (Mom didn't write a time so I would start checking at 20 minutes but I'm guessing it would take 30-40 minutes to be done.) (It's a small cake so you don't have to worry about lots of leftovers!)
Note: I haven't made this for quite a while and now I would try to make it healthier. I would use Splenda brown sugar. I would try using unsweetened applesauce or a fruit puree that is sold to replace fats in baking to replace all or part of the shortening. I would replace a good part of the flour with whole wheat, almond or soy flour. I have done all of these things in other recipes and the outcome was good so I have no reason to think that it wouldn't work for this one!