Raid the Cupboard

In the last few weeks I've been trying out some 'unusual' ingredient cupcakes with the idea of entering the "Most Unique Ingredient" at Cupcake Camp this weekend.

First up was the tomato soup cupcake as featured in the new book from Baked Explorations: Classic American Deserts Reinvented, the new book from the guys behind Baked bakery in New York. The recipe was featured in  Daily Candy so I thought I'd give it a go. I really didn't like it very much at all. The tomato soup overpowered the cake and I didn't even bother to make the frosting as I knew I'd never eat the cakes. Alas the weekend I made these was the weekend my camera broke so the pic is a bit dodgy. Also Manny had a cold so could taste nothing so I can't give a second opinion as the only other thing to taste them was my Brabinta. The second photo below shows how it should have looked when finished. My looked more like giant tomato muffins (that tomato soup really fermented when you added the baking soda - it was like something out of a horror movie!). I keep thinking about re-trying this recipe but with a lot more spice, as the spices really didn't come through in the cake in my opinion. Maybe trying it with Heinz soup, rather than the condensed soup as well as I'm told its makes a nicer, sweeter cake.

my tomato soup cupcakes

Baked's tomato soup cupcake

Next up was a cupcake I think I invented, as I've looked and can't find any cupcakes that are similar - if you've made them sorry! The reason I thought of this was all because the lady loves this....

the cornflake milkshake from Hawksmoor. Drooooool. One of the nicest things I've ever tried. I figured I would make some 'cornflake milk' by toasting the flakes lightly then adding to some ice cold milk, which I then left to soak for about 30mins or so. I then made a plain cupcake with the cornflake milk added. I added some cornflake crumbs to some of the cupcakes for extra taste (so I thought!). I was quietly confident this would work as the batter tasted really cornflake'y - like the milk that's left at the end of the bowl once you've scoffed the cereal. Alas the flavour baked out and what we were left with was a flavourless cake, and in the case of the ones I crumbled some cornflakes into, a flavourless cake with some soggy cornflakes in. Bugger.

Not willing to give up I made some cornflake milk frosting hoping it would save the cakes but it really didn't. Manny still ate them though! He really is the best taster in the world - and because he goes to the gym he works it off!

Next up was this weekends attempt. An yellow cake (ie no egg whites) infused with cardamom and saffron with a white chocolate and cardamom frosting. An Asian friend at work told me to ensure I used LOTS of cardamom to enhance the flavour. She suggested grinding it into the base but I wasn't that keen, instead I infused some hot milk with about 9 cardamom pods and a little bit of saffron and left to infuse for about an hour or two. The milk smelt very fragrant and I used equal quantities of  butter, caster sugar and baking powder and then 2 egg yolks, making up the remaining weight with the infused milk. The result was an incredibly moist, flavoursome cake. A little bit too flavoursome for me - I felt the cardamom was a little overpowering, but Manny happily scoffed them. I made a white chocolate and cardamom frosting using some of the leftover milk - I must say I'm not that fussed about white chocolate frosting, I find it a little too sweet.. Oh, and I baked some apricots into a few of them and Manny seemed to enjoy those when hungover yesterday, which didn't please the lady at work who was keen to try them!

I've just noticed that both cakes look kinda similar as they both have white frosting and I used the same cases for them - ooops. Honestly they're not - they're different cakes - you can tell by Manny's expanding waist-line, and the cardamom ones are more yellow inside!

the innards of the cardamom and saffron yellow cake

I have one more thing to try for Cupcake Camp with an unusual ingredient and then if that doesn't work I'm opting out of the comp! There are only so many odd(ish) things a girl can think of!

Btw, I've decided to name some of my posts this week in tribute to some of my favourite bands/songs for Halloween - this one is a tribute to Nunslaughter's Raid the Convent.

Can you keep a secret?

Firstly let me apologise for my photos - I still haven't replaced my broken camera so am relying on a pretty crappy phone camera - sorry - I hope to get a new camera this weekend.

I was approached via email a couple of days ago by We are Social asking if I was interested to receive a cupcake with a mystery ingredient

Given your expertise, we’d like to put your taste buds to the test by sending you one of them to try out as soon as they arrive. Rest assured there are no nasty surprises in store!

I was intrigued so gave them my work address and waited patiently for my cupcake. It arrived today much to the delight of our reception girls -they were ever so excited by the little mysterious note on it. I took a pic of the cupcake all nicely wrapped on  the kitchen table at work -  I should've incorporated more of our view in the photo - we have a wonderful view from our office.

Here's the cupcake slightly squished from a bit of a horrific journey home on the bus. Sorry cupcake. Still quite a pretty looking cupcake - and it had glitter on (my camera picks up naff all but it was there I promise), and I do like a cupcake with glitter on.

I spent a while sniffing it before eating it. Mainly to check it wasn't anything gross. I meant to confirm with them there was no seafood in there just incase I nearly died after a bite but I forgot. After a good five minute sniff I decided it definitely wasn't seafood. I could however smell something a little unpleasant but difficult to place. Not something sweet. Not something that should be in a cupcake.

I unwrapped it and it was quite an orangey/red colour with flecks of red in it. I got a bit excited that it may be chilli. It wasn't. I took a little nibble. Not a lot of flavour if I'm honest. But a massive lingering after taste of something wrong. I gave it 10 minutes (could still taste something) and went back for some more. By now I'd pretty much decided on either tomato soup or tomato ketchup from the after taste. I actually tried to make some tomato cupcakes on Sunday using the recipe from Baked and there was a similar after taste, although my tomato cupcakes were incredibly tomato'y and bright red so the after effects were much worse.

I had a little bit of the frosting to see if there was anything secret in there but it seemed to be cream cheese frosting and nothing else - very sweet though.

All in all the cake wasn't very appetising. The base was quite dry and the top was too sweet. And the odd smell was a little off-putting.

I shall post back when I find out what the secret ingredient is and why we were chosen to test these cupcakes.

In the meantime - what's the weirdest thing you've had in a cupcake? Or the weirdest thing you'd like to try and bake with? I think mine is still the bacon cupcake from Batch...shudder.

Oh and thanks to We are Social for thinking of me!

Update 9th Oct: I got an email yesterday from We are Social - the secret ingredient was indeed tomato ketchup so I was (kind of) correct! It is part of Heinz's Secret Ingredient campaign and the recipe for the Tomato Ketchup Cake can be found here (it's for a cake rather than cupcakes but you can adapt if you wish).

I heart Heinz Tomato Soup...

but I'm not sure about the idea of a tomato soup cupcake.

I first read about these on Cakespy's fabulous blog last week when they visited the Yellow Leaf Cupcake Co in Seattle, where the tomato soup cupcake is their signature cupcake.

Cakespy describe the tomato cupcake as a pleasant spice cake-y confection--if you didn't know it was made with tomato soup, you probably wouldn't know the source of its je ne sais quoi. The cake was pleasingly moist.

Then Cakespy published another article charting the history of the tomato cake and it turns out its been around for years, first mentioned in the press about 90 years ago, and was a favourite during the Great Depression. They also included a recipe for the tomato cakes, so if you fancy making them check out Cakespy and give it a go - let me know how they turn out! Think I'll stick to making some of Martha's from my blog earlier this week! This does however sound like something the Outsider Tart David's could make and make it taste great (of course!).

Thanks to Cakespy for the pic of the cupcake!