Tomato Fruit Cake

I enjoy a cooking challenge so when I saw that Laura from How To Cook Good Food and Nazima from Working London Mummy have asked people to submit a recipe based on just one ingredient, I thought I would join in. The one ingredient is the tomato. 

Now I have to be honest I am not a fan of the humble tomato in its raw sense. I have never liked eating them. However, I can tolerate them in pasta sauces, soup etc...
I noticed that Laura mentioned about maybe making a cake from tomatoes and it got me thinking, could this work? After all many vegetables do make a tasty cake.
Well, read on and you will see.

You will need:

175g self raising flour
175ml oil (I used rapeseed)
3 large eggs, beaten
175g light brown sugar
300g cherry tomatoes
100 g raisins
zest and juice of 1 orange
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg

juice of 1/2 orange
3 tbsp icing sugar

Then you need to:

prep the tomatoes

Place the tomatoes in a bowl and pour over some boiling hot water which just covers them.
Leave for about 10 minutes and then pour through a sieve/colander to remove the water
Then remove all the skins, chop finely and remove any core. You can also remove the seeds (i didn't and the cake was fine) if you wish.
drain off any excess liquid

make the cake

Pre-heat your oven to 180oC/160oC fan
Grease and line an 8cm loose bottomed cake tin
Pour the oil and add the sugar into a bowl and beat well until the sugar is well absorbed (about 3 minutes)
Add the eggs,  flour, bicarb and spices in two lots alternating as you go
Pour the raisons in a bowl with the orange zest and juice and cook for 2 minutes (if you have time, you could leave the raisins to soak in the orange juice and zest overnight)
Finally stir in the raisins and tomatoes
Pour the batter into the cake tin and cook pin the oven for approximately 50 minutes
(it may need longer but check it is cooked before removing from the oven by inserting a knife to see if it comes out clean)
Allow to cool completely before adding the icing

make the orange icing

Sieve the icing sugar into a bowl and add the orange juice and mix well
Pour over the cake - bear in mind that the icing will drip off so make sure you have the cake on a cooling rack with a plate underneath to collect the dribbles!

And that is it! You have a Tomato Fruit Cake

It tastes like a carrot cake really, and tomatoes definitely add a sweetness to the cake too. 

It is also very moist .

I would make it again

(my recipe was adapted from this carrot cake one)




please click on the photo to take you to the linky to see the other tomato inspired recipes