Green Tomato Cake

Once upon a time, my boys picked green tomatoes from my garden, called them apples, and proudly handed them to me or threw them over the garden fence into the compost heap. Waste not, want not, right! Between the boys and the squirrels, I harvested quite a few green tomatoes. I discovered this yummy cake recipe back then--like a spice cake and very similar to Green Tomato Bread. Somehow, despite their nearly identical ingredient lists, the two recipes do taste and feel different. Now that I'm getting green tomatoes from the Colvins, I'm revisiting this delicious recipe! You can freeze the tomato puree if you need to save the cake-baking for another day. I'm assuming you can freeze the cake as well since other, similar cakes freeze just fine.

Green Tomato Cake

Recipe from Allrecipes.com

• 4 cups pureed green tomatoes (puree in food processor until small pieces remain; don't liquefy)
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 cups white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup raisins (I think chocolate chips or Craisins would also be good)
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

1. Place pureed tomatoes in a bowl and sprinkle with 1 tablespoon salt. Let stand 10 minutes. Place in a colander, rinse with cold water and drain.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch baking pan or 2 8x8-inch pans.
3. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and beat until creamy.
4. Sift together flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, soda and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Add raisins and nuts to dry mixture; add dry ingredients to creamed mixture. Dough will be very stiff. Mix well.
5. Add drained tomatoes and mix well. Pour into the prepared 9 x 13 inch pan.
6. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes in the preheated oven, or until toothpick inserted into cake comes out clean.