Spice Cake with Cookie Butter (Biscoff) Cream Cheese Frosting

 People at work raved about this spice cake! And guess what? There is a secret ingredient - tomato soup! That's right; this is the tomato soup spice cake I mentioned in an earlier post. You can't taste the tomatoes, as promised. It's a nice moist spice cake that's perfect for autumn.

The frosting really makes this cake spectacular, though. I was hankering to use the "Cookie Butter" I had just purchased from Trader Joe's. The non-Trader Joe version is called Biscoff Spread. You can find out all about it here,

http://bakingbites.com/2011/12/what-is-biscoff-spread/

but all you need to know is that it is made from spice cookies called Speculoos and is super delicious. I added the cream cheese because I didn't want the frosting to be overwhelmingly sweet. It needs some tang.

Here is the slightly modified recipe for the cake and my frosting recipe. Some notes:

• I replaced some of the white sugar with brown sugar. This helps develop a deeper flavor and adds moisture. You could use all white, of course.
• I messed around with the spices. I find that clove tends to overwhelm all other flavors. Maybe I am just sensitive to clove so feel free to change it up.
• I decided to use vegetable oil because I knew that the cake would be refrigerated (due to the cream cheese frosting) and cakes with oil in them tend to stay softer when they are cold. Again, I'm sure butter would work fine.
• I used powdered buttermilk instead of milk or water. This product rocks!
• Another reminder to use room temp eggs. I can't stress enough how much this helps! Just stick your eggs in a bowl of hot water for 5 minutes before adding them.
• I frosted the cake with a rustic swirl. Truthfully, with cream cheese frosting you don't have much choice. It is difficult to get smooth. It is import to do a little bit of a crumb coat first - just a thin layer of frosting all around - to "trap" all the crumbs. Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes and then dollop on the rest of the frosting. I added some little mushroom-shaped cookies for fun (Chocorooms!)

Tomato Soup Spice Cake

Ingredients

2 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon chinese five spice powder

1 10 ounce can tomato soup
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk or water

Steps

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Prepare cake pans by spraying with cooking spray and dusting with flour. I used one 8"wide by 3" deep pan. You could use two eight inch cake pans.
3. Sift dry ingredients together into mixing bowl.
4. Combine wet ingredients in a bowl.
5. Pour wet into dry. Mix on low to medium until all ingredients are combined. Don't overmix.
6. Pour batter into pan or divide evenly into two cake pans. Place cake pans on a baking sheet on the middle rack.
7. Bake until toothpick comes out clean. For my extra-deep cake, I had to bake for about 40 minutes. Using two cake pans should cut the time to 25-30 minutes. Start checking at 20 minutes if you have a crappy rental oven like mine.

Cookie Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients

1 box cream cheese, softened
6 oz or 3/4 cup cookie butter
3-4 cups confectioners sugar
2 Tablespoons maple syrup (I used Trader Joe's Grade B)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Steps

1. Beat cream cheese on high speed to make sure that there are no lumps! Any cold lumps will not smooth out once you start adding liquid or other ingredients.
2. Add cookie butter and one cup powdered sugar to start. Beat until thoroughly combined, starting on low speed.
3. Add the maple syrup and vanilla extract and mix.
4. Continue to add sugar, bit by bit, until you have a consistency and sweetness that works for you.