Ruth Tott's make your own - green tomato cake

This week, Ruth shares a recipe submitted by two of her readers Gordon and Sue Grant.

Thanks to Home Farmer readers Gordon and Sue Grant for bringing me a bit of their home-made Green Tomato Cake at a show recently and then sending me the recipe to share with others.

If you have a favourite ‘go-to’ recipe you would like to share with others please send it to me: [email protected] along with a photograph of the food that you made, if you have one.

There are just some tomatoes that simply refuse to turn red – that’s even if you tell them the rudest of jokes!

We’ve a few ideas on our Homefarmer.co.uk website including a delicious Green Tomato Marmalade (https://homefarmer.co.uk/green-tomato- marmalade) as well the old favourite, Fried Green Tomatoes (https://homefarmer.co.uk/fried-green- tomatoes/).

The tomatoes provide a natural sweetness which has been exploited to the max in this Green Tomato Cake which is wonderfully moist and sweet and well worth trying if you do have a glut of green toms refusing to turn red.

GREEN TOMATO CAKE

INGREDIENTS

425g sugar

340g green tomatoes, de-seeded and diced

225g melted butter

3 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

455g self-raising flour

1 tsp salt

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground nutmeg

115g walnut pieces

170g raisins

METHOD

1 Preheat the oven to 180°C and grease and f
lour a 22cm x 33cm baking tin.

2 Beat the sugar, butter, eggs and vanilla in a bowl until smooth and creamy.

3 Sift together the flour, cinnamon, salt and nutmeg, then beat them slowly into the egg mixture, blending everything well.

4 Stir in the walnuts, raisins and tomatoes, then spoon the mixture into the baking tin.

5 Bake for 50–60 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

ABOUT RUTH

Ruth creates recipes in her small “nothing grand” kitchen in Preston, often trying to replicate what you can buy in the shops.

Her under-the-stairs cupboard now serves as a pantry and even became a “cheese cave” at one point where she produced her own homemade Stilton-type and Lancashire creamy blue cheeses.

Ruth says: “You don’t need to have loads of land, a smallholding or a farm to snatch a bit of ‘The Good Life’.

“You can do plenty using what you already have to hand. The main thing is to just have a go.”

When not cooking or crafting, Ruth works alongside her husband on monthly magazine Home Farmer and she is head of digital and magazine content.

ABOUT HOME FARMER MAGAZINE

Home Farmer is a paid-for editorially-led independently-published national monthly magazine run by Paul Melnyczuk and Ruth Tott.

It launched in 2008 with the vow to make sure it grew organically and sustainably.

Home Farmer is mainly available on subscription. It is also available from W H Smith and other outlets and a few farm shops.

For more details, visit the website at www.homefarmer.co.uk or call: 01772 633444 or e-mail [email protected]

To sign up to Home Farmer’s e-mail newsletter full of recipes and ideas, visit: www.homefarmer.co.uk