Those crazy Canadians

Over the Christmas break, Rachel drew my attention to the fact that Heinz publishes a recipe for a tomato ketchup cake. Naturally, I had to give it a go! The recipe is pretty much as published by Heinz, except for the omission of food colouring and substituting the bicarbonate of soda with extra baking powder.

Tomato Ketchup Cake
Ingredients

• 170g Butter
• 125g Soft brown sugar
• 205g Caster sugar
• 2 Eggs
• 250g Plain flour
• 4 tsp Baking powder
• 1 1/2 Teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp Ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp Ground ginger
• 125 ml (185g) Tomato ketchup
• 125 ml Water

Method

1. Cream the butter and sugar together.
2. Beat in the eggs.
3. Incorporate the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, ketchup and water.
4. Pour into two greased 23cm sandwich tins and bake at 180C for ~30 mins.

Looks like any other cake batter. It does smell oddly (though unsurprisingly) ketchupy though...

Whoops. I may have added too much baking powder.

Not perfect, but they look like cakes. It's slightly over-baked on top, but not burnt.

But they were stuck fast to the tins! I really shouldn't have been so lazy - I greased, but didn't flour the tins. Annoyingly, I had thought about it, but decided that it'd probably be okay without it. I was wrong!

Not a terribly pretty result, I'll admit. It looks better if you turn it the other way up though.

So, the important question: How did it taste? First off - disappointingly, the cake really doesn't taste of ketchup at all. (I seem to be in the minority of people in that I think "disappointingly" is the correct word there - a much more commonly held opinion is that "thankfully" would be a better choice...). But it was actually rather good. Nicely spiced, very moist in texture. The over-baked top turned into a wonderful, crunchy, caramelised top somewhat reminiscent of brandy snaps, while the inside was lovely and soft. The non-ketchup flavours (nutmeg, cinnamon and ginger) are a classic combination and that is what really comes through in this cake. The original recipe suggested sandwiching and icing the cakes, but I would suggest that that is neither necessary nor a good idea - the cake is plenty sweet and moist enough on its own.

Overall, it's actually a pretty decent cake - just a little disappointingly normal, that's all!