Tomato Soup Cake

Tomato Soup Cake made in loaf pan with raisins and nuts

For the past century, tomato soup cake has endured, remaining a stalwart presence through decades of food trends to become an American dessert icon. And if you haven’t tried it yet, you’re in for a revelation. Despite its sometimes off-putting name, this is a genuinely solid dessert, an easy-to-make cake that converts fans with just a single bite. Tomato soup cake is essentially a basic but flavorful spice cake that uses a can of tomato soup in place of milk, oil, or other dairy products; if you’ve ever made chocolate mayonnaise cake, you’ve used a similar technique to bring moisture and texture to your dessert without adding any weird flavors.

Although today’s recipe iterations don’t always reflect its original frugality, tomato soup cake has roots in Depression-era cooking. Recipes for the cake, sometimes called “Mystery Cake” because of its secret ingredient, first appeared in community cookbooks in the 1920s and 1930s. And these prototype tomato soup cakes were very simple: single-layer pan cakes or loaf cakes with scant quantities of dairy in the ingredient lists.

It didn’t take long for Campbell’s Soup to develop its own version and to start using it to promote their own goods. According to official Campbell Soup Company records, the first company-developed tomato soup cake recipe came out in 1940 as a British-style steamed pudding. (A brief timeline: Campbell’s Tomato Soup itself was introduced to the public in 1897, but the Campbell’s test kitchens didn’t officially open until 1941. Hence the decades of housewives crowd-sourcing and developing their own cake recipes.)

Campbell’s Recipe steamed pudding recipe for Tomato Soup Cake: One tablespoonful lard, one tablespoonful butter, one teaspoonful soda, two cups flour, one teaspoonful cinnamon, one cup sugar, one can Campbell’s Tomato Soup, one cup raisins, one half teaspoonful [ground] cloves. Cream sugar and lard in bowl, add soup with soda dissolved in it; soft flour, and add spices and raisins. Mix thoroughly and bake for one hour.

The steamed pudding recipe also called for scant amounts of fat — one tablespoon butter, one tablespoon lard — but as butter rationing fell by the wayside after World War II, tomato soup cake recipes got a little more lavish to match the nation’s new prosperity (not to mention the growing American obsession with culinary convenience). Nancie McDermott, author of Southern Cakes, notes that in the postwar era, advertising started targeting female homemakers and — as today — weekly newspaper food sections featured recipes, which helped influence and drive the knowledge of home cooking. Meanwhile, she adds, cooking was becoming less regional; from Louisiana to Delaware to Minnesota, ladies all across the country could buy Campbell’s and get in on the trend. By the ’60s, the tomato soup cake as we know it today was making its way into homes across America.

Frosting and icing were not part and parcel of the very first tomato soup cake recipes (again with the frugality), and the presentation was very simple. It was always served as a single layer cake and almost always plain. According to McDermott, cream cheese frosting came to prominence in the 1970s when “healthy” carrot cake took the dessert world by storm. “It was a huge turning point,” she says. And now, thanks to the simplicity, speed, and undeniable tastiness of cream cheese frosting — as McDermott laughs, it’s much easier to make than boiled icing or meringue — this topping has now become part of the tomato soup cake canon, along with the trend of making a double-layer cake.

The oldest recipe we found for Mystery Cake/Tomato Soup Cake is this:

[1932: Marian Manners]
"Mystery Cake
Four tablespoonfuls butter; one cupful sugar; one can tomato soup; one teaspoonful soda; two cupfuls cake flour; two teaspoonfuls baking powder; one-half teaspoonful salt; one teaspoonful cinnamon; three-four teaspoonful cloves; three-fourths teaspoonful allspice; one-half cupful seedless raisins; one-half cupful nut meats. Cream shortening and sugar. Add soda to soup and stir until all signs of action disappear. Add to creamed mixture alternately with flour sifted with baking powder, salt and spices. Add raisins and nuts with last of flour. Pour into greased aluminum loaf cake pan and bake one hour (or more) at 350 deg. Let stand one day before serving."
---"Requested Recipes," Marian Manners, Los Angeles Times, November 28, 1932 (p. A6)

[1941: Campbell Soup Company]

"Tomato Soup Cake
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon mace
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup seeded raisins
2 tablespoons shortening
1 cup sugar
1 egg (well beaten)
1 can Campbell's Tomato Soup (10 3/4 ounces)

Sift the flour, measure; add spices, baking soda, baking powder and sift again. Wash and cut raisins and roll in 2 tablespoons of flour mixture. Cream shortening, add sugar gradually, and cream well. Add beaten egg and mix thoroughly. Then add flour mixture alternately with the soup. Stir until smooth. Fold in the raisins. Bake in a buttered loaf cake pan 8 by 4 inches in a moderate oven (350-375 degrees F.) For 1 hour."
---Easy Ways to Good Meals: 99 Delicious Dishes Made with Campbell's Soups, Campbell Soup Company [Camden NJ] 1941 (p. 36)