Monday 7 July 2008

Tomato cake, the sweet and spicy type

First point. I've now understood that vegetables do deserve their places in sweet cakes. They make them moist and therefore good. And I understand that before I've even tried beetroot-chocolate cake or chocolate cake with sauerkraut.

Second point. I haven't yet understood why vegetable cakes always hide their flavour behind a heap of spices or chocolate. Would they really be that bad otherwise? I haven't tried a version without them myself, but it seems as though we're just using the vegetables, isn't it? I mean, I'd be insulted, it's like dating a man but begging him to wear a paper bag on his head.

Third point. In case of a tomato flood at your house (I'm looking forward to ours...), this recipe is a great way of smuggling tomatoes into a dish. Just peel fresh tomatoes by scaring them with boiling water until the skin wants to come off by itself.


Spicy tomato cake with curd cheese frosting
(Adapted from Maria Öhrn's 'Tårtor' (Cakes))

100 g butter at room temperature
2 1/2 dl soft brown sugar (I used 2 dl of caster sugar and 1/2 dl of dark syrup instead)
3 eggs
3 dl pureed canned tomatoes (beware, they have to be in their own juice, not marinated)
5 dl flour
1/2 tbsp baking soda
1/2 ml ground nutmeg
2 ml ground cloves
1 tsp cinnamon
100 g walnuts (I used hazelnuts instead - a very tasty adaption!), chopped to pieces

frosting:
400 g curd cheese (cream cheese could be used instead)
2 dl heavy cream
sugar
vanilla
1 1/2 tsp lime juice
  1. Beat the soft butter together with the sugar until fluffy.
  2. Add eggs one by one and then pureed tomatoes.
  3. Mix flour with spices and baking soda, then add to the batter. Add chopped nuts.
  4. Grease a 24 cm springform pan and pour the batter into it. Bake at 175C for 40-50 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool completely.
  5. Beat the heavy cream and sugar with an electric mixer until whipped, then add curd cheese. Flavour with extra sugar (if needed), vanilla and lime juice.
  6. Cut the cake into two and spread the frosting both between the layers and on top. The cake is good served immediately, but it's better after a few hours.


It's primarily a spice cake. I tried to trace tomato flavour (thinking of tomato juice), but it was quite hard. I think I noticed a bit of it, but that's as far as my noticing goes; I can't be sure:D

The spice combination kind of gets it and the cake is nicely moist, even if it doesn't look so apparent on the photos. The curd cheese frosting came out really nice and fitting, but I tend to think that sour cream could have been a cooler ingredient here. Even more in harmony with the whole spicy cakey thingy (and it's not that I thought about our family's all-time-favourite tomato salad with sour cream...).

20 comments:

Mariajaan said...

Speechless...I just told my 12 year old foodie at home that he has a perfect source of inspiration in your site. This morning he had gingerbread toasts topped with kapsas ja sibula salat!! He said it was great and I ran away...This is so very original!

grace said...

yum! this sounds like a fantastic use for tomatoes--they don't get put into desserts often enough. thanks for sharing! :)

Anonymous said...

What a coincidence, I was just thinking the other day I should try out baking with tomatoes! In a different way though but still...
Creative thinking...you and I both ;)

Anonymous said...

That looks delicious.

I remember seeing a (retro) tomato cake recipe floating around in cyberspace once. But, the tomato in the recipe came in the form of soup, as in Campbells Tomato Soup.
As odd as that sounds, it's out there.
Your recipe sounds so much better. Thank you.

cmoore said...

what a great idea! thanks for sharing, I hope I have the problem of too many tomatoes before too long :)

Evelin said...

mariajaan, the gingerbread toast sounds great!:D:D;)

grace, thanks! that's what I thought as well:)

linda, great minds think alike, don't they?;)

memories in the baking, thank you! hmm, won't try a cake with soup in it, that's for sure!

cmoore, thank you! I'm waiting for them myself...

Allen said...

I am so intrigued by this cake -- what a wonderful use for tomatoes!

Lo said...

I've got to say I'm impressed. I've made chocolate cake with green tomatoes (yes, another case of USING my veg)... but never a cake with ripe tomatoes.

Will have to try this out!

Pooh said...

I am having so much trouble wrapping my mind around the image and the (imagined) taste. I've never had a vegegtable cake, describe it for me please. Pretty please.

Anonymous said...

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Anonymous said...

Nice post, that pictures makes me hungyr :p

Anonymous said...

I'm craving for it! wow!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for this, yummy for my tummy.

goodpeoplegives said...

Thanks for sharing this great post.:)

billrainier said...

Thanks for the awesome post.

Personal loans said...

huhmmm! Look so very delicious, i want to try that in my home i will try to make a cake using tomato, that was healthy food, thanks for posting this i never thought tomato can be a recipe to a cake, it is unique it was the first time i see this kind of cake but it's really interesting and also its taste i wonder what.
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Unknown said...

How original. I just landed on your site and your recipes are very different and interesting. I am curious about this cake and must give it a try

Fast food places said...

Nice post I love all your recipes! I've become quite the addict lately! Thanks for a great dinner
that warms up the house.

Coffee Maker Reviews said...

Oh.... I LOVE tomatoes, and never thought about making a tomato cake!

What a great idea!

Penny

Cale said...

This post is really awesome!