Patricia Polacco's Thunder Cake
"This is the Thunder Cake recipe from Patricia Polacco's "Thunder Cake" picture book. It is a wonderful chocolate cake with a hint of fruit flavor from the secret ingredient! It is perfect frosted with Recipe #169403 and topped with fresh sliced strawberries! (The strawberries and tomato match wonderfully and I promise that no one will know it is tomato, they will only ask what you did to make it so wonderful!)"
photo by fluffernutter
- Ready In:
- 1hr 5mins
- Ingredients:
- 10
- Serves:
-
8
ingredients
- 1 cup shortening
- 1 3⁄4 cups sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 3 eggs, separated
- 1 cup cold water
- 1⁄3 cup tomato puree
- 2 1⁄2 cups cake flour
- 1⁄2 cup cocoa powder
- 1 1⁄2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
directions
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Grease and flour two 8 1/2 inch cake pans.
- Cream together the shortening and sugar.
- Beat in the vanilla and egg yolks.
- Mix in the cold water and pureed tomatoes.
- Beat the egg whites until they are stiff and fold into egg/tomato mixture.
- Sift the cake flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.
- Mix dry mixture into wet.
- Pour batter evenly into cake pans.
- Bake for 35 to 40 minutes.
- Let cakes cool on wire racks before frosting with chocolate buttercream icing.
- Optional: Top with fresh strawberries.
Questions & Replies
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Do you need the vanilla? -
do you need the shortening?
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Do you need shorting?
Reviews
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5 and 4 years ago My own Grade 7 class read this book. Its such a lovely author and illustrator of many other books including Thunder Cakes. -
Made this for my mom’s second grade class after they read the book, and WOW!! They are awesome. I used tomato sauce instead of purée and then used 2.25 cups of all purpose flour. I made cupcakes so it would be easier to disperse and this recipe made about 26 good size cupcakes. The taste/ smell reminded me a lot of devils food cake donuts. Recommend this recipe (even though I was extremely skeptical of the tomatoes)!
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(Some ten years ago) My daughter's second grade teacher loved sharing this book with his students, and as class volunteer, asked me to make this treat two years in a row. Who would have thought tomatoes and chocolate go together, but they do! Great book, great Cake recipe! -
This was a really great recipe. I made it for my tutoring student as an end of the year surprise. He had just read the book in class and he got really excited about it. I was skeptical about the tomatoes but it went really well together!
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I am so glad you posted this recipe! My son brought home a hand-written recipe for this after reading the story at school and wanted to make it. However, after starting, I realized there was no flour listed in his version, as he missed it when writing. Thanks to you, we didn't waste a ton of ingredients, and he's happy, having helped make it. Baked in a 9x13 for a bit more time, frosted with milk chocolate icing and topped with strawberries. Thanks so much!
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RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
<p>My name is Karen and I live West of Chicago (on the edge of no where!) with my DH, our two German Shepherds, and our two daughters. I love to golf, garden (except for the weeding!), am addicted to romance novels (and good science fiction), and I love to bake--usually cakes from scratch when I have the time! Since getting married, I have been cooking a lot more and am having a lot of fun trying new recipes! And now that I have two little ones, the slow cooker is my friend! The girls take a lot of time, but they are worth it!<br /><br />The dogs are my babies too--though they are about as big as I am! It has been a bit of a challenge at times, as they both have severe hip dysplasia, but they are great dogs and I have learned so much about arthritis! I have also learned a lot about cancer, as our female was diagnosed with bone cancer. She is now on three, but doing great post-chemo. They are both great with the kids and love to ***** little hands and feet! and noses! and ears! and...! <br /><br />I participated in the 2006 Fall PAC--and what a great game/program/thing! So much fun! <br /><br /><img src="http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b399/susied214/permanent%20collection/untitled.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting" /> <br /><img src="http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b399/susied214/permanent%20collection/200_artistrichardneuman-art-prints_.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting" /></p>
