10 Vintage Dessert Recipes with Unexpected Ingredients

We’ve gathered 10 intriguing dessert recipes that use unexpected ingredients—all found on Newspapers.com™! Bring one of these vintage desserts to a friend’s house, family dinner, or potluck, and you’ll likely have people guessing what the “secret ingredient” is!

READ MORE: 7 Helpful Hints for Making Vintage Recipes

(Greenville News, 1922)

(We’ve transcribed the newspaper recipes below to make them easier to follow. Click on any image to see the original recipe on Newspapers.com™.)

1. Mashed potatoes in cookies (1949)

Recipe: Molasses-Potato Cookies (1949)Recipe: Molasses-Potato Cookies (1949) 17 Apr 1949, Sun The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) Newspapers.com


Molasses-Potato Cookies

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup shortening
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
  • 1 cup warm mashed potatoes
  • 1/2 cup molasses
  • 2 cups sifted, enriched flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon ginger
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1/2 teaspoon allspice
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions

  1. Cream shortening and brown sugar. Add potatoes, while creaming. Mix in molasses.
  2. Mix and sift flour, baking soda, spices, and salt. Add.
  3. Drop by tablespoons on greased cookie sheets. Flatten by pressing with floured tines of fork in two directions.
  4. Bake in moderate oven, 350°F, 20 min. Yield: 60.

2. Sauerkraut in cake (1964)

Recipe: Sauerkraut cake (1964)Recipe: Sauerkraut cake (1964) 13 Nov 1964, Fri Dayton Daily News (Dayton, Ohio) Newspapers.com


Home Size Kraut Cake

Ingredients

  • 1 ½ cups sugar
  • 2/3 cup shortening or butter
  • 1 ¼ teaspoon vanilla
  • ¼ cup cocoa
  • 3 eggs
  • 2 ¼ cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 2/3 cup water
  • ½ cup kraut (chopped and drained)

Directions

  1. Sift together flour, baking soda, and baking powder; set aside.
  2. Cream sugar and shortening, add eggs, mix well, then add vanilla, salt, and cocoa. Mix well.
  3. Alternately add flour mixture and water. Add kraut.
  4. Bake in greased and floured pan at 375 degrees for 45 minutes. Yields two 8×8-inch cakes.

3.  Ice cream in banana bread (1979)

Recipe: Banana Ice Cream Bread (1979)Recipe: Banana Ice Cream Bread (1979) 12 Apr 1979, Thu Star Tribune (Minneapolis, Minnesota) Newspapers.com


Banana Ice Cream Bread

Ingredients

  • 1 cup mashed banana (about 2 medium large bananas)
  • 1 cup maple nut ice cream or butter pecan ice cream
  • 2 cups flour
  • ¾ teaspoon soda
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ¾ cup sugar
  • ¼ cup butter or margarine
  • 2 eggs
  • ¼ cup buttermilk

Directions

  1. Grease and flour a 9- by 5- by 3-inch pan (standard bread pan).
  2. Mash bananas and measure. Measure ice cream.
  3. Sift dry ingredients, except sugar, together and set aside.
  4. Cream sugar and shortening together until fluffy. Add unbeaten eggs one at a time, beating well.
  5. Put buttermilk, mashed bananas, and ice cream into bowl with shortening mixture and mix.
  6. Add flour mixture all at once and blend just until flour disappears.
  7. Put dough into prepared pan and let stand about 15 minutes.
  8. Bake 45 minutes to 1 hour or until tester comes out clean. (In the testing, we baked bread at 350 degrees.)

4. Mayonnaise in cake (1948)

Recipe: Mayonnaise Cake (1948)Recipe: Mayonnaise Cake (1948) 02 Mar 1948, Tue The Vancouver Sun (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada) Newspapers.com


Mayonnaise Cake

Ingredients

  • 1 cup mayonnaise (8-oz. jar)
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 ¾ cups flour
  • 3 tablespoons cocoa
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • ½ teaspoon nutmeg
  • ½ teaspoon cloves
  • 1 cup dates (chopped)
  • 1 cup walnuts or pecans (chopped)
  • 1 teaspoon soda
  • 1 cup boiling water
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

  1. Mix mayonnaise and sugar well.
  2. Sift flour, spices, and cocoa together.
  3. Dissolve soda in boiling water.
  4. Add sifted ingredients alternately with boiling water and mayonnaise and sugar mixture.
  5. Add dates and nuts, stir well, and bake in greased pan for 1 hour at 350 degrees F.
  6. Frost with chocolate butter icing.

5. Soda pop in cake (1969)

Recipe: Soda pop cake (1969)Recipe: Soda pop cake (1969) 08 Oct 1969, Wed Cardunal Free Press (Carpentersville, Illinois) Newspapers.com


Soda Pop Cake

Ingredients

  • 1 package (18 ½ oz.) Pillsbury white cake mix
  • 1 ½ cups carbonated strawberry soda pop
  • 2 egg whites and 1 whole egg (or 3 whole eggs)

Directions

  1. Blend cake mix, soda pop, and eggs until moistened.
  2. Beat as directed on package.
  3. To deepen color, add food coloring to batter as desired.
  4. Pour batter into greased and floured 13×9-inch pan.
  5. Bake at 350 deg. for 25-30 minutes or until done.
  6. To frost: Tint Pillsbury Fluffy White Frosting Mix with 5 drops of food coloring.
  7. For variety, substitute your choice of soda pop flavors.

6. Velveeta® in fudge (1979)

Recipe: Velveeta cheese fudge (1979)Recipe: Velveeta cheese fudge (1979) 18 Nov 1979, Sun The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, Iowa) Newspapers.com


Velveeta Cheese Fudge

Ingredients

  • 1 pound Velveeta cheese (cut in pieces)
  • 1 pound butter or margarine
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 4 pounds powdered sugar
  • 1 cup cocoa
  • 1 cup chopped nuts

Directions

  1. Heat butter and cheese in sauce pan over low heat, stirring until melted.
  2. Remove from heat, blend in vanilla.
  3. Add powdered sugar and cocoa, mix until stiff.
  4. Add nuts and spread on greased cookie sheet.
  5. Refrigerate for 1 hour and cut into squares. Store in refrigerator.

7. Wine in Jell-O® (1903)

Recipe: Wine Jelly (1903)Recipe: Wine Jelly (1903) 01 Jan 1903, Thu The Weekly Gazette (Colorado Springs, Colorado) Newspapers.com


Wine Jelly

Ingredients

  • 1 package lemon Jell-O
  • 1 pint boiling water
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 cup sherry wine
  • Juice of 6 oranges

Directions

  1. Cut each orange in two, being careful not to break the case.
  2. When jelly is partly congealed, fill cases and set in a cool place.
  3. Serve with whipped cream piled on top. May be served in sherbet cups if desired.
  4. A delicious wine jelly can also be made by adding one glass of good sherry or port wine to any of the Jell-O flavors.

8. Coffee in spice cake (1939)

Recipe: Spice Cake (1939)Recipe: Spice Cake (1939) 22 Feb 1939, Wed Edmonton Journal (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) Newspapers.com


Spice Cake

Ingredients

  • 1 ½ cups of cold leftover coffee
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • ½ cup lard
  • 1 cup seedless raisins
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • ½ teaspoon nutmeg
  • ½ teaspoon cloves
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda

Directions

  1. Into a double-boiler, put coffee, brown sugar, lard, raisins, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.
  2. Boil for 15 minutes and cool.
  3. Sift together flour, baking powder, and baking soda.
  4. Add boiled mixture to flour, beat well, and bake in layer cake pans in a moderate oven for 20 minutes.
  5. Frosting: ¼ cup butter, 2 tablespoons hot strong coffee, and enough powdered sugar to make a smooth icing. Spread between layers and on top of cake, which, of course, must be cold.

9. Pudding (and biscuit mix!) in cookies (1966)

Recipe: Pudding cookies (1966)Recipe: Pudding cookies (1966) 03 May 1966, Tue Star Tribune (Minneapolis, Minnesota) Newspapers.com


Pudding Cookies

Ingredients

  • 1 package instant pudding mix (any flavor)
  • ¾ cup biscuit mix
  • ¼ cup cooking oil
  • 1 egg

Directions

  1. Combine all ingredients and mix until they form a ball.
  2. Break off small pieces (about a teaspoon), form small balls, and place on ungreased cookie sheets. Flatten to about 2 inches.
  3. Bake 8 minutes in moderate oven (350 degrees). Makes 2 ½ to 3 dozen small cookies.

10. Sour cream in brownies (1967)

Recipe: Sour Cream Brownies (1967)Recipe: Sour Cream Brownies (1967) 08 Feb 1967, Wed The Kansas City Star (Kansas City, Missouri) Newspapers.com


Sour Cream Brownies

Ingredients

  • 1 package (1 pound ½ ounce) walnut brownie mix
  • 1 egg
  • ½ cup dairy sour cream

Directions

  1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Grease square pan, 9 by 9 by 2 inches.
  3. Mix all ingredients thoroughly.
  4. Spread batter in prepared pan.
  5. Bake 35 minutes. Cool.
  6. Cut into 1 ½-inch squares. Makes 3 dozen

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