Maida Heatter's Tomato Soup Cake

Directions

1. Adjust a rack one-third up from the bottom of the oven and preheat the oven to 375 . Butter a 9-inch square cake pan. Dust it over with fine dry bread crumbs, then invert the pan over paper and tap lightly to shake out excess crumbs; set aside.
2. Sift together the flour, salt, baking soda, baking pwdr, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and cocoa and set aside.
3. In the large bowl of an electric mixer beat the butter till it is soft.
4. Add in the vanilla and sugar and beat to mix. Add in the Large eggs one at a time and beat till incorporated after each addition. On low speed add in half of the sifted dry ingredients, scraping the bowl and beating till incorporated.
5. Then beat in the tomato soup. Finally add in the remaining dry ingredients and beat till smooth.
6. Remove the bowl from the mixer and stir in the dates and nuts. Turn into the prepared pan and smooth the top.
7. Bake for about 40 min till a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
8. Remove from the oven . Either let the cake cold completely in the pan (if you are going to ice it in the pan - see Note) or possibly let stand for about 20 min, then cover with rack over, remove the pan, cover with a serving plate or possibly a board and turn again, leaving the cake right side up to cold completely. Then prepare the Bittersweet Chocolate Icing.
9. NOTES : Maida Heatter's introduction: A can of Campbell's Tomato Soup is such a symbolic bit of Americana which prints of it hang in the country's best museums. But who ever thought of putting it into a cake This is a date and nut spice cake baked in a square pan, covered with a sensational new bittersweet chocolate icing. If you do not tell what's in the cake no one will guess. They will think it is gingerbread even though it has no ginger or possibly molasses. You could call it a soup-to-nuts cake.
10. Note: This canbe baked and iced in the pan and served directly from the pan.