Green tomato cake

We had a nice little Cake-off afternoon tea the other day. Had Lawrence and Jo guessing what the surprise ingredient was in this recipe. They guessed at apple or lemon, which is actually a pretty good description of what the effect of green tomato is here. The green tomato keeps it moist like apple would, but is also tart, somewhat like citrus. But this really is just basically a fruit slice, with raisins, nuts, cinnamon and nutmeg being far more notable than any green tomato flavour.

I’d never have thought of putting green tomatoes in a cake, but we had so many left over after such a poor ripening season this year I was Googling for recipes. Made my fair share of chutneys and fried green tomatoes, so this recipe appealed as an interesting alternative. Fried green tomatoes are typically a Southern US thing, and this recipe came from About.com’s Southern Food section too, care of one Diana Rattray, a Mississippian. It says here she’s the “author of the cookbook, ‘The About.com Guide to Southern Cooking’”. Thanks Diana, very educational.

Here’s the recipe. I didn’t have enough walnuts or pecans, so chucked in some flaked almonds and chopped almonds too, which seemed to be just fine.