One of the first recipes I have kept from my college years is my recipe for rum cake. It is my favorite kind of recipe- easy, fast, and flexible. The basic recipe is roughly the same as this one. I have made lots of variations on this, but today's is definitely the most creative!
Yesterday, my mom brought home several green tomatoes from Grandma E. I have been very curious about green tomato pie, so after some searching online, I decided to try out my rum cake formula with a green tomato as part of the formula. STAY WITH ME PEOPLE!
I wanted to keep it healthier, so along with the box of spice cake mix, vanilla pudding, and eggs, I omitted the oil, water, and rum. Instead, I used orange juice, chunky apple sauce, and a chopped green tomato (1/2 c for each). I also added a splash of vanilla and another teaspoon of cinnamon. I put the batter into mini loaf and mini muffin pans and baked it up. YUM!
While I am all about using weird recipes like this, I do tell the people eating them what's in my cooking. Partly do to my icky relationship with garlic, partly due to my promise to my husband to never sneak in olives/mushrooms/his other non-favorite foods into things without warning him. It does remove some of the fun shock value of cooking things like green tomato cake, I do feel like my husband and friends trust and appreciate my cooking more by me being open about the secret ingredients.
Now, I have 2 green tomatoes left. I may try fried making the traditional fried green tomatoes, but I may try another experiment. Who knows? Stay tuned!
