An old fashioned quick cake, Tomato Soup Cake is a spice cake, which is topped with applesauce and finished with a baked meringue.
A favourite recipe of my Mom, we were always sworn to secrecy not to reveal the secret ingredient….condensed tomato soup. She was certain that my Dad would not eat it if he knew that there was tomato soup in the recipe.
Tomato Soup Cake with the Applesauce (recipe follows) layer and the meringue layer is an outstanding dessert!
Tomato Soup Cake
Serves
| 9 |
Inspiration
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Grammy's Recipe
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Ingredients
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1/3 cup Crisco or your favourite shortening
- 1 Tsp baking soda
- 1 Tin (284 ml or 10 oz) condensed tomato soup
- 1 1/2 Cups all purpose flour
- 1 Tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 Tsp ground cloves
- 1 cup raisins (soak in hot water)
Topping #1
- 1 cup applesauce (see recipe to follow or purchase commercial applesauce)
- 1 Tbsp grated lemon rind
- 1/2 Tsp cinnamon
Topping #2
- 2 egg whites
- 4 Tbsp white sugar
- 1/4 Tsp cream of tartar
- 1/8 Tsp salt
Directions
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Cream shortening and sugar. |
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Dissolve the soda in the soup. |
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Stir into the sugar mixture. Add the flour sifted with the spices and fold in. Then add raisins (which have been soaked in hot water) and mix well. |
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Use a greased 8x8x2 pan. Bake about 50 minutes at 325 deg or until tester comes out clean. Because this bakes for so long, place a bowl of water in the oven beside the cake to help keep it moist.
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Topping #1
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Both the applesauce(if just made) and the cake should be cooled for about 15 minutes. Mix applesauce, lemon rind and spices. Spread the applesauce over the cooled cake. |
Topping #2
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Beat the egg whites until stiff; gradually add sugar, salt and cream of tartar. Swirl the egg white mixture over the applesauce mixture layer. |
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Place in a hot oven (425 °F ) until golden, about 6 minutes. |
Variation - Bundt Cake
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Bake the cake in a bundt pan. Instead of the applesauce and meringue toppings, make a maple flavoured butter icing and drizzle over the top of the baked bundt. |
Applesauce
Ingredients
- 4 medium to small apples (I prefer MacIntosh, but you can choose your favourite cooking apple)
- 1 - 1 1/2 Tbsp brown sugar
- JE* (just enough) cinnamon to taste
Directions
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Peel and core the apples and then cut into bite sized pieces. Sprinkle with cinnamon (to taste....I like a fair amount of cinnamon). Add the brown sugar and stir. |
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Put on a burner that is on simmer, cover and cook about 20 - 30 minutes (depending on the apples), stirring every 5 minutes or so, until the apples are soft and can be broken down with a fork. |