When you grow a lot of tomatoes, there is an inevitable glut of green tomatoes at the end of the season. We do all the normal tricks like picking them when they even show a smidge of colour and letting them ripen in large flat bowls in the kitchen. We also pull the whole plants out of the garden, roots and all, once the frosts start to come, and hang them upside down in the carport. Over the next few weeks, more fruit continues to ripen while still attached to the plant.
However there comes a stage when you have bowls of green tomatoes and that is when I stumbled across this cake recipe and we all absolutely love it. After all there is only so much green tomato pickle that you can eat or give away … but you can freeze cakes.
We also use this recipe to make tomatillo cake, which is sweet and yummy, like a plum cake.
Ingredients
- 1 cup (250g) butter, softened
- 2¼ cups sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3 eggs
- 3 cups plain flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)
- 1 cup sultanas (mixed fruit also works well)
- 2½ cups diced green tomatoes
- Coconut (optional for topping)
Method
- In a mixing bowl, beat sugar, butter and vanilla until smooth and creamy.
- Add eggs one at a time, beating well to combine.
- In a separate bowl, sift together the dry ingredients – flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.
- Slowly beat into the egg mixture and blend well.
- Stir in walnuts (if using), sultanas and green tomatoes and mix well.
- Pour into greased and lined 23cm x 30cm pan and top with shredded coconut if desired.
- Bake for one hour or until skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
