I’ve got to admit, this cake didn’t taste great, but it sure does look pretty. This cake was the second of two I baked with my friend, Joe. For the first, see: Week 21: Gooey Butter Cake.
I have a bit of a history with this cake recipe. Its name comes from a popular children’s book, Thunder Cake. From what I remember of the book, it’s about a girl and her grandmother baking a cake as a storm rolls in. The ingredients correspond to different elements of the storm. And the most unusual ingredient of all is included – pureed tomatoes. When I was little and my mom would read the book to me, I would lament about the addition of tomatoes in a cake. “How could that be?” I’d ask. Well, you never know until you try. And I finally tried, over two decades later.
The book’s author, Patricia Polacco, posted the recipe to her website. My copy of the book is nestled in a box deep in a closet somewhere in my parents’ home, so that is the recipe we worked with. But I made a couple substitutions, using butter in place of shortening and plain, canned tomato sauce in place of pureed tomato.
After we sifted all the dry ingredients, we whipped the egg whites in a separate bowl and creamed together the yolks, butter, sugar and vanilla.
Then Joe gently folded in the egg whites.
Next, we added the 1/3 cup tomato sauce.
Once we added the water, the batter got gross. I won’t say what it looked like, but I’m sure you can guess.
Next we mixed the dry ingredients into the wet.
It was starting to look pretty good.
I prepped the 8″ pans. We’re probably discussing the family politics so prominently featured on the current season of The Real Housewives of New Jersey.
We poured the batter into the pans and it was ready to bake.
The layers slid right out of their pans, I love that!
In the meantime, we made a batch of chocolate buttercream.
I have to say, the frosting was the best part of this cake. It had just the right amount of saltiness and using almond extract gave it a really nice flavor and scent. So the frosting recipe’s a keeper. And the cake? Not so much.
After I sent Joey home with half the leftovers, I picked at it but ultimately threw it out a few days later.
Yeah, I gotta be honest: I just ate all the frosting off the next morning and tossed the cake.
What’s up with the tomato sauce?!
Now I’d have thought the cake would be scrummy. But, you and I have the same taste, Nina. So I trust your judgment. Too bad. It’s a delicious looking cake!
it looks so good i am going to try it!