delvious

I took a few of these delvious cupcakes to the San Francisco National Food Bloggers’ Bake Sale weekend before last, where contributions from about 20 local food bloggers brought in $1,650 in donations for Share Our Strength (!!!).





The bake sale was held outside of Omnivore Books in San Francisco, which is perhaps the most awesome place ever.  An hour flew by as I thumbed through cookbooks on every imaginable topic including local cuisines (I wanted a mammoth New Orleans cookbook like no other) and vintage publications that looked well-loved by 1950s housewives.  I’m glad I had left my wallet in the car, or my credit card bill could have gotten ugly.





The highlight of the day was walking outside of the bookstore to see an adorable old man in a beret leaving the bake sale, carrying one of my cupcakes.  I really wanted to take a picture, but that might have been a little creepy so I refrained (barely).

Recipe

You’re probably wondering how I can ramble on about this bake sale when I clearly need to explain these tomato soup spice cupcakes. Contrary to what you might think, they were delicious.






Generous quantities of allspice, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg were baked into a Campbell’s tomato soup laced batter.  Since I made these cupcakes the night before the bake sale, I used oil in place of butter because I figured that would guarantee a nice moist cake in the morning.






The red-tinged cakes tasted somewhat like pumpkin bread or carrot cake.  The sweet but slightly tangy cream cheese frosting was the perfect compliment, and I highly recommend topping each with some toasted walnuts.  The tomato was barely detectable, if at all – I doubt anyone would have guessed there was a delvious mystery ingredient had I not disclosed it on the packaging.

Tomato Soup Spice Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Adapted from Mike’s Blog via Nancie McDermott’s Southern Cakes

Prep time + Bake time = 15 minutes + 20 minutes

Makes 20 cupcakes

Printable recipe

Cake Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/3 cups sugar

1 tbsp plus 1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp ground allspice

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp cloves

1/2 tsp nutmeg

One 10 3/4 oz can condensed Campbell’s Cream of Tomato soup

1/2 cup canola oil

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1/2 cup water

Frosting Ingredients

One 8 0z block of cream cheese, room temperature

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature

3 cups powdered sugar

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Walnuts for garnish, toasted (optional)

Directions

1.  Preheat oven to 350F.  Place cupcake liners in cupcake pan.

2.  Add flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, allspice, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg to a large bowl.  Stir with a fork to combine well.

3.  Add tomato soup, oil, eggs and water to the bowl.  Using a whisk or mixer on low speed, beat the ingredients into a smooth batter.  Scrape down the sides with a spatula occasionally.

4.  Distribute the batter among the cupcake liners, filling each about 2/3 full.  Bake for 18-20 minutes, until the cakes are golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

5.  Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then move cupcakes to a wire rack to cool completely.

6.  Once the cupcakes are cooled, add the cream cheese and butter to a standing mixer (or a large bowl and use a hand mixer).  Beat until evenly combined.  Add powdered sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, beating after each addition.  Once desired consistency is reached, beat in vanilla extract.

7.  Frost cupcakes.  Garnish with toasted walnuts if desired.

In: Cake | tags: allspice, bake sale, cinnamon, cloves, cream cheese, nutmeg, Tomato soup. | #