2 c All-purpose flour; sifted
1/4 ts Salt
1 ts Baking soda
12 ts Baking powder
1 1/2 ts Cinnamon
3/4 ts Nutmeg
1/4 ts Cloves; ground
1 tb Unsweetened cocoa powder
4 oz Unsalted butter
1 ts Vanilla
1 c Sugar
2 lg Eggs
1 cn Tomato soup; condensed, (10
-3/4 oz.)
4 oz Dates; pitted and chopped
4 oz Walnuts; chopped
Adjust a rack one-third up from the bottom of the oven and preheat the oven
to 375?. Butter a 9-inch square cake pan. Dust it over with fine dry bread
crumbs, then invert the pan over paper and tap lightly to shake out excess
crumbs; set aside.
Sift together the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon,
nutmeg, cloves, and cocoa and set aside.
In the large bowl of an electric mixer beat the butter until it is soft.
Add the vanilla and sugar and beat to mix. Add the eggs one at a time and
beat until incorporated after each addition. On low speed add half of the
sifted dry ingredients, scraping the bowl and beating until incorporated.
Then beat in the tomato soup. Finally add the remaining dry ingredients and
beat until smooth.
Remove the bowl from the mixer and stir in the dates and nuts. Turn into
the prepared pan and smooth the top.
Bake for about 40 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes
out clean.
Remove from the oven . Either let the cake cool completely in the pan (if
you are going to ice it in the pan — see Note) or let stand for about 20
minutes, then cover with rack over, remove the pan, cover with a serving
plate or a board and turn again, leaving the cake right side up to cool
completely. Then prepare the Bittersweet Chocolate Icing.
NOTES : Maida Heatter’s introduction: A can of Campbell’s Tomato Soup is
such a symbolic bit of Americana that prints of it hang in the country’s
best museums. But who ever thought of putting it into a cake? This is a
date and nut spice cake baked in a square pan, covered with a sensational
new bittersweet chocolate icing. If you don’t tell what’s in the cake no
one will guess. They will think it is gingerbread even though it has no
ginger or molasses. You could call it a soup-to-nuts cake. Note: This can
be baked and iced in the pan and served directly from the pan.
Yields
16 Servings