Mysterious Tomato Soup Cake

I have finally tried the infamous and mysterious tomato soup cake and it's all thanks to this month's Crazy Ingredient Challenge! I can't imagine that any of you envy me when I say that the challenge was to cook something delicious with tomatoes and coconut, but I bet that you would envy me if you knew how delicious my dessert came out. 

I don't know what it is about a can of tomato soup that made my cupcakes so delicious, but I know that it somehow worked. And maybe the success wasn't all due to chance. I did make a couple of conscious choices when building my recipe. I chose a can of soup without herbs and spices, I added lots of cinnamon to the batter, and I made a delicious frosting for the top. 

Curious yet? Read on for my delicious recipe. 

Cinnamon Spiced Cake with Coconut Caramel Frosting - makes about 12 cupcakes 

1 can condensed tomato soup, the kind without herbs and spices

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/3 cup butter or margarine 

1 cup brown sugar

1 egg

2 teaspoons cinnamon 

1 1/2 cups flour 

1 teaspoon baking powder

Coconut Caramel Frosting - recipe follows 

Coconut, for garnish

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. 

2. Combine soup and baking soda in a bowl. Just remember that the mixture will puff up, so use a fairly large bowl. 

3. Combine butter, sugar, egg, and cinnamon in another bowl. Then pour in the soup mixture and sir to combine. 

4. Whisk together the flour and baking powder. Pour flour mixture into the wet ingredients and stir to just combine. 

5. Divide batter among 12 muffin tins and bake about 15-20 minutes or until done. 

6. Let cool and then frost with Coconut Caramel Frosting and decorate with coconut. 

Coconut Caramel Frosting 

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup dulce du leche or other caramel sauce 

1 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 -3 cups powdered sugar
Splash of coconut milk, if needed

Cream butter in a large bowl until fluffy. Add in dulce du leche, vanilla, and salt and mix until well combined. Beat in powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time, until reaching desired consistency. Add coconut milk by the teaspoon as needed until frosting reaches your desired consistency. 

This frosting is almost the same as the one I used for my Harry Potter Butter Beer Cupcakes. Both are great but this one is a little easier so I really like it a lot!