Yes, you did read that right… this is a recipe for a ketchup cake with a mustard flavoured icing! I’ve been sent this recipe to try many times now and I figured, hey, lets do this and get it done, because, well, i’m intrigued! The cake has tomato sauce within the sponge and the cake is finished in a mustard flavoured icing! Here’s how to make it….
First up in a large bowl beat together the butter with the sugar until creamed together, then add in the 2 eggs, mix well until you have a thickened batter and a consistent colour. Leave to one side.
In another bowl add the water, food colouring and the, um, ketchup. This may create a bit of a brain like looking thing in your bowl temporarily but stir it through until you have a nice smooth bright red watery mix.
In a final bowl mix together all of your dry ingredients – the flour, soda, baking powder and mixed spice. Add in the two other wet mixtures in small batches stirring as you go until you are left with one big thickened but smooth cake batter, it may be a little pink in colour but should bake through a nice red shade! Line 2 9inch cake tins with baking parchment, fill evenly with the cake batter and bake for 30 mins at 350f or equivalent, see temperature conversion charts.
Meanwhile the frosting is made by mixing together the icing sugar and butter until smooth, then following up with the mustard, if you wish once this is mixed through to make it even more yellow you can add some yellow food colouring, perhaps a touch of vanilla extract could help here too but taste it and see what you think of your very own mustard icing!?… Leave it to one side.
When the cake is baked remove from the oven allowing it to cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then turn onto a wire rack to cool fully. Frost the cake in the mustard icing once fully cooled, wedging the sponges together and decorating the top… boom!
The cake was still quite sweet – ketchup has a fair bit of sweetness to it, but the mustard icing really does give this thing a tang! Try it and see how you get on.