Tomato Soup Cake

I caught a glimpse of myself as I walked past a mirror in our house the other day. Wowsa - but not in a good way! It was a glimpse of the greasy haired, no make-up, thoroughly exhausted, dark circles under eyes person I've become. To be honest, it was a bit of a shock and it was the dark circles and bags under my eyes that really shocked me. It's amazing what lack of sleep will do to you. Other than ensure that you find it difficult to carry out even the most simple of daily tasks, it gives your face a look that screams I NEED A MAKE-OVER BUT BEFORE THAT, I NEED 8 HOURS SLEEP, PREFERABLY UNBROKEN. The baby is 5 weeks old now so I still have another few months of sleepless nights but in an effort to be "glass half full", every night of broken sleep brings us closer to being capable of staying awake to watch the end of X Factor - although by all accounts, I've not missed much this series!

My husband came home from work the other day to tell me that someone from the office had brought in Tomato Soup Cake which he said was delicious. I had never heard of this before so I turned to Google for confirmation that it even existed (you should never believe a man!). Apparently Tomato Soup Cake is extremely popular in the southern US states. It's similar to a carrot cake as it has quite a lot of spices and you would never know that the "secret" ingredient is tomato soup. But it's spicier than carrot cake and not at all as sweet.

To boost my energy levels (that was my excuse anyway!), I decided to give this recipe a go yesterday. I have to say this cake is absolutely delicious and it goes incredibly well with the cream cheese icing. If you like, you can add some walnuts or raisins to the mixture to make it even more like a carrot cake.

I've butchered quite a few recipes so I don't think I should reference any of them!

Ingredients

200g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp ground ginger
60g butter
270g sugar
2 large eggs
1 can Condensed Cream of Tomato Soup (mine was 300g can)

Icing
200g cream cheese
60g soft butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
400g icing sugar

Method
Preheat the oven to 180C. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger. Set aside.

Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, 5 minutes on medium-high setting. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each for 30 seconds. Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture alternately with soup, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat well after each addition for 1 minute.

Pour into two 8-inch round layer tins which have been greased and lined on the bottom with parchment paper. Bake for 30 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes in tins, then remove to wire rack to cool thoroughly, 20 to 30 minutes.

Beat the cream cheese, vanilla and butter together then gradually add the icing sugar until smooth.