Christmas Cake Week: James Beard’s Gluten-Free “Mystery Cake”

All photos by Knoxy

This is the first in this week’s series of Christmas Cakes—there will be a new one everyday and since this cake is made two ways, it counts as the first two days…ENJOY!!!

I love that most people stutter when they hear that this cake has a can of tomato soup in it. I first became fixated on pairing savory condiments after I read about a chocolate mayonnaise cake in the Fox Searchlight cookbook from 1932 that I was given as gift last year. Shortly after I received the lovingly worn volume, I suddenly started seeing chocolate mayonnaise cakes appearing in everything from Food & Wine to Martha Stewart, so of course I had to make a gluten free mayonnaise cake, which will appear next in my holiday cake series, so circle back around because you don’t want to miss it.

If mayonnaise could yield such an incredible result, what would other savory condiments bring to my baker’s box? Well, I was flipping though my James Beard cookbook and saw a recipe for a “Mystery Cake.” Naturally I was very intrigued and flipped from the index to the actual recipe. I was so flabbergasted I had to read the ingredient list twice. The “mystery” of the cake was obviously because it included a whole can of tomato soup. I’ve been known to have a pretty eccentric palate, but the idea of this gave me extreme pause and then my curiosity got the better of me because it was going to be a real challenge for many reasons, the main being that Campbell’s tomato soup isn’t gluten free. So was this recipe even possible with store bought tomato soup?

The only tomato soups that I found that were gluten free proved to be more of a hunt than I anticipated and I only found four that were usable. How they tasted was the second part of the elimination process. And after my taste test, there was only one that I would even attempt top use seeing how all the others tasted like pizza sauce and the idea of a pizza flavored cake was almost too much for me to bring to fruition, even in my mind.

The one and only gluten free tomato soup that I did find that worked was the organic Muir Glenn, so be sure to make note of this BEFORE you go to the grocery store. I also tested the cake baked two different ways so you can have both a rich and a lighter version at your fingertips. The first version is rich as the day is long with a decadent basil-lemon cream cheese icing and the second is far lighter with a simple toasted walnut oil glaze. Either way, the cake is magnificent. The raisins and walnuts create a lovely mouth feel while the mysterious can of tomato soup brings it all home for a devilishly rich twist on a savory and sweet dessert.

Tomato Cake with Basil Cream Cheese Icing
Adapted from James Beard’s “Mystery Cake” in American Cookery

60 g. or ½ cup sorghum flour
60 g. or ½ cup + 1 tablespoon glutinous rice flour
65 g. or ½ cup tapioca flour
45 g. or ¼ cup potato flour spoon-in method or 3 tablespoons for the scoop method
40 g. or ¼ cup teff flour, spoon-in method
200 g. or 1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon guar gum
heaping ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
1 ¼ teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 ½ teaspoons freshly ground nutmeg

3 whole eggs
¾ cup pure olive oil
1 ¼ cups tomato cream bisque soup, only Muir Glenn

¼ cup Greek style yogurt, spoon-in method and leveled
zest of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons lemon juice

½ cup dark raisins
½ cup yellow raisins
1 cup toasted walnuts, coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 350°F. Liberally grease and line two 8” round cake pans with parchment paper and vegetable shortening.

When the oven comes to temperature, toast the walnuts on a sheet pan for about 7-10 minutes, keeping an eye on them so they don’t’ burn. The moment you can smell them, they are done. Remove and allow to cool on the pan. Coarsely chop.

Strain the tomato bisque soup into a bowl then whisk in the olive oil and the eggs. You should have 1 ¼ cup.

In a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, combine all the dry ingredients, mixing on the lowest setting to evenly amalgamate.

Add the egg mixture and slowly increase the speed of the mixer to medium, then mix on high for 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the lemon zest, lemon juice and Greek yogurt. Mix on low to incorporate, then increase the mixer to high for 30 seconds until very smooth.

Remove the bowl from the mixer and fold in the raisins and walnuts.

Divide the dough between the two pans. Smooth the top with an offset spatula.

Bake at 350°F for 35 minutes and a tooth-pick inserted into the middle comes out clean and the cakes have pulled away from the sides of the pan.

Place pans on a wire rack to cool for 20-30 minutes and the cakes are just barely warm to the touch. If the cakes are still warm they will be too delicate to handle. Place a piece of parchment on the wire rack so the cakes will not stick to the wires. Invert the cakes onto the parchment. Remove the parchments from the bottom of the cakes and then gently turn the cakes over to cool completely.

For the icing:

1 stick (8 tbs.) unsalted butter
14 basil leaves, finely chopped

3-8oz. packages of cream cheese, room temp.

1 ½ cups sifted confectioner’s sugar
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon zest
3-4 drops green food coloring if needed

Melt the butter in a saucepan. Once it foams, remove from the heat and add the chopped basil leaves. Allow to sit for 10 minutes to infuse. Pass the butter through a chinoise or a very fine sieve. Press the pulp to extract the oils from the leaves.

Place butter in the fridge to set for 30 minutes. Remove and then cube the butter. Cube the cream cheese as well. Allow both to soften for 20 minutes. In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, whip the butter until smooth. Add the cream cheese and mix on high till very smooth. You should not see any lumps. Add the confectioner’s sugar and vanilla and lemon zest. Whip on high for 3 minutes until fluffy. Add a few drops of green food coloring until you achieve the color you desire.

To assemble the cake:

Level the cakes as needed. Place one layer of the cakes on a cake stand or serving platter with parchment paper so you won’t get icing on the stand or platter. Using an offset spatula, cover the bottom layer with a healthy portion or icing, about 1/3 of your total yield.

Place the second cake layer over the icing, top-side down. Cover the entire cake with a thin layer of icing using a plastic pastry scraper for a very even, smooth base layer.

Refrigerate for 20 minutes to set the icing and then apply the remaining icing. The cold cake will make the icing set rapidly, so work quickly.

Garnish the top of the cake with walnuts.

For the second way:

Grease a tube pan with vegetable shortening. Prepare the cake in the exact same fashion and bake at 350°F for 35-45 minutes and the cake is dark golden brown and the edges have pulled away from the sides of the pan.

Allow the cake to set in the pan before inverting, at least 20 minutes.

Invert onto a wire rack.

For the icing:

2 teaspoons roasted walnut oil
2 cups confectioner’s sugar
2 tablespoons water
pinch of salt

raisins for garnish

When the cake has cooled, set the wire rack over a sheet pan. Whisk all the ingredients together to the ribbon (long ribbon of sugar falls away from the whisk). Pour over the cake and then top the cake with raisins.