The Domestic Empress

For my birthday I got this amazing baking bookOne of the things we noticed immediately was a certain recipe just lurking in there amongst the others: Tomato Soup Cupcakes.

You just had to know I’d take that as a challenge.  Especially when I saw this at the bottom of the page:

Oh, yes, it was on. I decided to make half and half – some the regular way and some the “adventurous” way – and see which version we liked best. After all, my housewarming party was the perfect venue for a taste test, right?

There were skeptics.

But I pressed on.

See how the batter is kind of plain looking that last picture? It stayed that way. I half expected that the cupcakes would be, well, tomato soup colored. I was wrong.

Which was probably for the best because I think it would have been hard to get people to eat them if they actually looked like tomato soup. Maybe not. I split up the options on two plates and explained to any interested parties what the difference was.

And there was a subtle difference between the two. The cinammon and nutmeg version tasted like pumpkin bread – which I love, so I really enjoyed that.

The salt and pepper version was just plain. I expected fire and savory and explosions!  There were no explosions. It was just very plain. Every now and then you’d get a little piece of pepper and it was okay, but not nearly as exciting as the “adventurous” advertising claimed.

All in all, these cupcakes were a mild success. The marscapone was the right amount of sweet to balance the not super sweet cake. The cake itself was moist but really sturdy. People ate them, we liked them, but I don’t think I would make them again. I really wanted to be blown away by how spectacular they were and it just didn’t happen.

Are you a fan of “spice cake”? Do you think you’d be brave enough to try tomato soup cupcakes if you were confronted by one?