Chocolate Tomato Cake with Mystery Ganache and Campbell's Soup Contest

 What a coincidence! Heavenly Cake Bakers made Rose's Chocolate Tomato Cake with Mystery Ganache containing Campbell's soup and this was on Cake Wrecks.  Considering Campbell's makes 237 kinds of soups, it got me to thinking.  Which soup would I choose to put in a cake for a corporate commission?  It could only be tomato

                           .

But wait!  Campbell's Soup is having a big contest.

Rose's cake reminded me of Playmobil's toy fort. It would be fun to replicate this for a little boy's birthday.

It also brought back fond childhood.memories when my mother got wind of the latest cake fad.  Naturally, she and the other neighborhood ladies had a go at it.  We kids were aghast.  Tomatoes or no tomatoes, we couldn't let chocolate cake pass us by and to our amazement, there wasn't any tomato flavor at all.   One of my all time favorite cook books, White Trash Cooking, lists Mater Cake which is, I suppose, code for tomato-soup-in-cake-but-no one-will-suspect-a-thing.

My daughter remembered her American Girl Cookbook explained the use of tomato soup in baked goods.  Molly, the doll representing World War II era, had a recipe using tomato soup in brown bread with the explanation bakers added it for extra nutrients.  Rose's cake gives new definition to Healthy Request!

Campbell's has a manufacturing plant  in my hometown.  When the delta breeze kicks in, we can tell which soup is being stirred up.

This was without a doubt, one of the easier cakes to make in Rose's Heavenly Cakes.  The hardest part was  fending off the grandkids from wanting "just one more" Piroette cookie.   I haven't bought any in years and the price increase gave me a bit of sticker shock.

The batter is the fluffiest to date.  I weighed half into a cake pan and turned the rest into cupcakes.

The ganache was made with Ghirardelli 60% chocolate chips and Raymond's One Bowl Method.  It worked perfectly.  I could not add the tomato soup.  I rationalized, reasoned and generally chastised myself then compromised with a tablespoon.  I think Nancy B was a guardian angel.

The cupcakes were done in thirty minutes.  The cake took a long time to bake.

Frosting with the ganache and spackling the cookies to the side was a breeze.  I cut the cookies in half and got away with just one can.  Waste not want not, or in my case eat the left overs, I scattered the bits and pieces over the top.

There is absolutely no trace of tomato flavor in this cake or ganache.  It's moist and light.  The Piroettes are ultra flaky and to my surprise, doesn't compete with the texture.  So far everyone likes it.  No one guessed correctly the "mystery" ingredient.

"This is wonderful!"

Even a new generation of kids think it's a really good chocolate cake.