Friday 2 December 2011

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.









14 comments:

  1. Sounds so wrong but looks so right!! I hear you on the sleepless nights but don't worry it won't last forever and you will miss the night time snuggles when they are over!

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  2. Hmmm my husband never mentioned anything about this cake during the week. I will have to interogate him this evening now. Defo sounds really wrong, but if it's anything like carrot cake it will be right up my street. Hope baba shifts time zones for you soon & starts sleeping at night instead of the day :)

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  3. Sounds so good. My husband (from Alabama) makes corn bread muffins with tomato soup and cheese in them and some hot sauce and he dunks them (warm out of the oven) in a glass of ice cold milk. I like your 'sweeter' version a lot more .... good luck with the baba and I agree with Paula....once they start sleeping through the night you will miss that snuggle time ...and not that this will console you at all I have darks circles under my eyes and my youngest is SIX!

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  4. Sleep deprivation is not fun, but hopefully you are getting amply compensated. I'd forgotten about tomato soup cake until I saw it here again. It's quite hard to imagine what it would taste like, but it looks very nice and such a lovely colour too.

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  5. Paula, I think you're right. I need to stay positive - I'll get there. In the meantime, I'll eat cake!!

    Adrienne,it was actually a few months ago that they had this cake at Stuart / Greg's work. Bit of poetic licence there!

    Mona - In a weird way, that corn muffin and ice cold milk combo sounds strangely appealing. That last comment about your six year old has put years on me!!

    Choclette - Strangely the spicy and sweet combination works so well. No idea how such a cake was originally conjured up though.

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  6. I'd seen a few of these a long time ago. Think I should try it for myself one day as I love tomato soup. I'd really like to taste it. Hope you get more sleep in the coming months :)

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  7. Baking Addict - you should definitely give it a go. It shouln't taste as good as it does! Something different for the weekend.

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  8. The interrogation went along the lines of me: 'WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME ABOUT THE CAKE?' him - 'it must of been the environmentalists' So I wouldn't of been any the wiser on the poetic licence :) I was just wondering why I wasn't smuggled some cake home really.

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  9. I've read about tomato soup cake but never tried it - once you get past the "ew, it's soup" stage there's no reason why it shouldn't work. Your cake looks lovely and I love the thick frosting too

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  10. I've never heard of this cake but now v intrigued. Will have to try this out.

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  11. Cross My Apple Tart - Adrienne, I had a good giggle when I read this. Promise I'll be more accurate next time to avoid any "situations" in your house ;)

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  12. The Caked Crusader - It took me a while to come to terms with the fact that there was a high possibility I'd be wasting ingredients by attempting this cake but nothing ventured, nothing gained eh?!!

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  13. Miss Cake Baker - Go on, you know you want to :)

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  14. tomato soup? haha thats something different!

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