Julia Child's Spice Cake

NO EGGS AND NO MILK!!
*This pic has cream cheese frosting - the perfect accompaniment to spice cake...
*You can also make this a 'diet' item if you eat it just plain - or dust it lightly with confectioners sugar...
My friend, and co-author of this book, Dawn has a copy of Julia Child’s “The Joy of Cooking.” Ever since I borrowed it last year and started ‘reading’ it (because it is a read! She takes you there – she is so comprehensive about every aspect of every recipe you can’t help but get caught up in it all… (loved Julie & Julia by the way)

Anyway – Dawn is well aware of my kids allergies and while perusing the book one day called me and said that she found a cake recipe that didn’t have eggs (or milk)! I was surprised – but a bit put off when she listed the ingredients. It’s called “Mystery Cake”

I don’t know about you – but I would NEVER eat something with the word mystery in it – it reminds me of that episode of FRIENDS where Rachel makes trifle with ground beef – bleck…

Back to the matter at hand – the cake. It is a spice cake – from scratch. My husbands favorite kind of cake is spice cake – so he was a good judge for this recipe. He liked it and so did the rest of us! For sanity purposes I am going to re-name it…

Julia Child’s Spice Cake
2 c flour
1 t baking soda
1 t ground cinnamon
½ t ground nutmeg
½ t ground cloves
½ t salt
Beat in a large bowl at high speed until light and fluffy:
¼ c butter
1 c sugar
On low speed, beat in the four mixture in 3 parts, alternating with:
10 oz can condensed cream of tomato soup
In two parts, beating until smooth, beat in:
1 c chopped walnuts or pecans
1 c raisins
Scrape the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing the top. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Let the cake cool in the pan on a rack.
Dust with confectioners’ sugar
Or Frost with Cream Cheese frosting

*For this bundt cake – I doubled the recipe.
**Also, I couldn’t find cream of tomato – so I used regular tomato soup and I eliminated the pecans and raisins too...