Tomato soup cake

ELEANOR BARNETT bakes a flavoursome wartime favourite that contains a surprising mystery ingredient

- ELEANOR BARNETT

What! Soup in cake and pudding!” begins a 1941 recipe - and you're probably thinking the same thing. “Yes, ma’am!” the recipe continues, “it gives rich color, helps keep them moist and fresh and makes them very good to eat indeed.”

Tomato soup cake was invented in the 1920s, and commercialised by Campbell’s soup company. It became popular in the US during the Great Depression and Second World War, when ingredients such as eggs and butter were hard to come by but tinned soup was a pantry staple.

Campbell’s canned soup - which was transformed into an American icon by Andy Warhol’s 1962 artwork - dates back to 1897 when Dr John T Dorrance of New Jersey developed a process for condensing soup, resulting in smaller cans and lower prices.

The use of soup in the cake recipe reduced the need for additional fat, and the acid from the tomato soup activated bicarbonate of soda, producing the carbon dioxide bubbles that cause the cake to rise.