This was one of those recipes I came across that sounded so weird I just had to try it for myself. The recipe is called "Soup to Nuts Cake" but has gone by many names including "Tomato Soup Cake" and "Mystery Cake." The recipe first made an appearance during the depression but made a resurgence during WWII as a way to make cake without eggs and only using a little butter.
Similar recipes were advertised as holiday fare likely because they used a lot of sugar. During WWII sugar could be substituted with maple flavored syrup, corn syrup, molasses, honey or sorghum and all of these substitutions would be complimentary to the flavor of this cake.
Tomato Soup Cake
Ingredients:
-1 Cup Sugar
-2 Tbs Butter
-1 can Tomato Soup
-1 tsp. Baking Soda (dissolved in the soup)
-1 tsp. Baking Powder
-1 Cup Raisins
-1 Cup Walnuts, chopped
-1 tsp Cloves, ground
-1-2 tsp Cinnamon
-1/4 tsp Nutmeg
-1 3/4 Cups Flour
Icing
-3 oz of Cream Cheese
-1 1/2 cups Powdered Sugar
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Cream butter and sugar together and add soup. Add the dry ingredients and mix until combined. Pour batter into a greased cake pan and bake for 45-60 minutes or until it passes the toothpick test. Let cool completely. For icing, mix powdered sugar and cream cheese together.
I ended up only making half of the icing and drizzling it rather than icing the whole cake-there's a war on, after all. I realized after I made my batter that the bundt style might not have been the best for such a chunky batter but it ended up keeping its shape quite nicely.
I was hoping to bring this little mystery cake to the Eisenhower Farm event for our home front display and as a little adventurous eating for our company but a tragic, completely unforeseen event befell us. I forgot the cake in the freezer and didn't realize until we were halfway there! So this little hunk of mystery is going to have to hang out in the freezer until next event and I will publish a part 2 to this post "Fear Factor: WWII ration cooking edition."
I thought I would include some of my favorite pictures from the event for those of you who couldn't make it out. Enjoy!
I love tomato soup cake. My grandmas recipe said to "quickly" stir the baking soda into the soup, and "quickly" get it mixed with the remainder of the ingredients. I did not believe this at first. Guess who got foamy orange soup everywhere? :)
ReplyDeleteGood to know! I guess I did it quickly without thinking about it! :D
DeleteMy grandmother made this a few years ago as well. I thought it might have been some old thing she clipped from the paper but it turned out she found it on the internet, lol. I think hers was a chocolate version.
ReplyDeleteI saw a lot of chocolate frosted ones and I'm going to try that one next just to see how the flavors work out!
DeleteIs 450 degrees correct?
ReplyDeleteHi, just wondering how big is the can of tomato soup? Will the condensed tomato soup do?
ReplyDeleteWatch your cake more closely than I did. My cake was already burnt at 40 minutes cooking time...
ReplyDelete