Tomato Soup Cake

This morning we had an unexpected visitor in Missoula - snow. What a relief, I was getting worried spring might actually appear!

Actually, it wasn't bad, only a dusting. Really it was quite a lucky walk. Cool, very cool, and quite crisp. My delicious cup of coffee, complete with cream and always a treat, didn't stay hot very long, since I had poured it into a tea cup rather than an actual travel mug. The clouds were yellow and pink with sunrise, and despite the below freezing temperature, reminded me that Easter was only a few days away.

The trees on the mountain, a deep blue green, stuck out against the white mountainside. The contrast reminded me of toile, which of course took me back to Williamsburg. The wild mountains of Montana made me feel slightly at home, as if I was walking in a different version of the manicured streets of colonial Virginia.

On a different note, this weekend we will be travelling to Hays, MT, a JV community on a reservation, about 9 hrs away for Easter. And thus, we will have to rent a car. Which costs a pretty penny. In order to save up some money for this, we decided not to buy groceries this week. We've suggested doing this before, for different reasons. One, to use up food that is in the pantry/freezer (we are pretty well stocked in those areas) and two, as sort of a fast since this week is Holy Week.

Unfortunately, we are out of some things, such as milk and eggs. There are thousands of vegans who can do without these two essentials, so I figured we could too. Earlier this week, I had been looking at a recipe for jam cake. I love jam cake. I haven't had it in years, when a family friend would make it. (Mom, do you remember how much I liked Mae's jam cake?) Unfortunately that called for 3 eggs. Right next to that recipe in my Joy of Cooking, I saw a recipe for "tomato soup cake." It's a spice cake that uses tomato soup instead of eggs and milk. (It did use butter). It really wasn't bad. None of my roommates guessed that tomato soup, which was actually tomato paste plus water since we were out of tomato soup as well, was the secret ingredient. I think if I had put in cloves and raisins like it called for (out of those too) and remembered to put in the walnuts, you would have never been able to guess the difference.

I really want to make jam cake to take to Hays for Easter. I think I'll be able to scrounge up a couple of eggs by then!