Mr. Morris' Salsa Cake

Submitted by COOKGIRl

"Found this interesting cake recipe this weekend in an equally interesting cookbook called Morning Fires, Evening Lights published by the Marlboro folks. Yes, those Marlboro folks. I appreciate a creative culinary experiment and this is it. Have not tested the recipe-yet. (Tomatoes are a fruit after all!) Let's Salsa?"

 

• Ready In: 35mins
• Ingredients: 23
• Serves: 12

ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 1 1⁄3 cups sugar
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3⁄4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1⁄2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1⁄2 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1 cup salsa (homemade, a good store-bought brand, or use the salsa recipe below)
• 1⁄2 cup shortening
• 2 eggs
• 1⁄3 cup water

• Frosting

• 6 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons butter, to room temperature
• 1⁄2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

• Salsa

• 2 cups tomatoes, crushed (or equivalent canned tomatoes)
• 1 cup roasted red pepper, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, finely minced (I'm thinking less garlic or no garlic for this recipe!?!?)
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro or 2 teaspoons fresh parsley
• 1 teaspoon jalapeno, minced
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar or 2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
• 1⁄4 teaspoon salt

directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. In large bowl mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, soda, cinnamon, cloves and allspice. Cut in the shortening with a pastry blender.
3. Add the salsa, beating 3 minutes with an electric mixer. Next beat in the eggs and water, beating another 3 minutes.
4. Grease and flour two 8-inch round cake pans or one large bundt pan. Line the pan(s) with parchment paper.
5. Pour in batter evenly into the pan.
6. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Note that the cake may take longer to cook if baked in a bundt pan.
7. In the meantime, prepare the cream cheese frosting.
8. Beat all ingredients together until smooth. Set aside.
9. Cool cake on wire rack then frost with cream cheese frosting.
10. Pat yourself on the back for being adventurous.
11. Parting Words: "And somewhere, later on, ranch kitchens, cabins and range camps will fill with people and easy conversation (and Cookgirl adds that these various venues will also fill with people coughing, heavy clouds of cigarette smoke; the smoke detector alarms will be set off -- ) Because THIS is Marlboro Country.".

Reviews

[roperlj]

This cake is pretty good and pretty weird at the same time. I made it in the bundt cake pan. We enjoyed it but it was very crumbly. I'm going to try to find out what I can do to fix that because I think I will make it again.

 

[YnkyGrlDwndr]

Well today on the spur of the moment I found and decided to make this adventuresome cake! My dear almost 5 year old while we were eating chips and salsa said we could make a cake out of this for daddy since he likes spicey stuff! I thought well maybe we could. But I wasn't about to go experimenting on my own and one quick search at my go-to place landed me this recipe, the only Salsa Cake to choose from! It was unique in flavor, with a hint of the salsa. But what's more is the texture is perfect and pushed this from a 3 star to a 4 star for me. I used mild Pace Picante as that's what I had on hand. I would like to try this with my more intense homemade salsa next time. I also did the cream cheese frosting differently. 8 oz Cream Cheese and about a cup and a half icing sugar and 1/2 tablespoon of vanilla extract. I like my cream cheese frosting to be slightly sweet with the cream cheese flavor coming through strong.