Tomato Basil Cupcakes- Iron Cupcake challenge

I decided to put my love of baking to good use and join the Iron Cupcake Earth challenge. If you haven't participated, you are missing out! Not only do you get to put your already awesome skills to good use, you have an opportunity to win the neatest prizes! The secret ingredient is what makes it so exciting! This months secret ingredient was BASIL. A cup cake with basil, you may be asking..? Yup, that's what I thought, too. But you know something, an absolute "yumminess" occurred! I thought to myself, what goes best with basil... tomatoes, right? Well, how the heck you do that in a cupcake and make it taste good? Well, years ago I remember my grandma making the yummiest sweet tomato soup bread. But of course, it was a bread. I had to play with the ingredients to make the batter a cake like consistency, and then remove all the autumn spices so that the basil flavor would come through. I think this little challenge turned out purdy good! I topped it with sweet basil cream cheese frosting, and ended up with about 18 unique cupcakes! Give it a try:

Cupcake batter

2 c flour
2 Tbs baking powder
1/2 c shortening
5 Tbs unsalted butter, softened
1 c sugar
2 large basil leaves, finely minced
1 can (10-3/4 oz) condensed Tomato soup
1 Tbs baking soda
10 large basil leaves, chopped fine

Frosting

2 8oz packages softened cream cheese
1/2 c softened butter
2 c powdered sugar
3 large basil leaves, minced fine

Mix flour and baking powder. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together the shortening, butter, sugar, and 2 large finely minced basil leaves.

In a small bowl, mix together the tomato soup, baking soda, and 10 large basil leaves, chopped fine. Set aside.

To the butter mixture, sift flour mixture in 1/3rds, mixing after each. The mixture will resemble coarse crumbs. Then add tomato soup mixture, plus 1/2 a soup can of cold water. Mix well. Pour into lined cupcake pans and bake at 350 for approximately 25 to 30 minutes, depending on your oven,or when toothpick inserted comes out clean.

While baking, cream together cream cheese, and butter. Add powdered sugar a little at a time until well incorporated. Fold in 3 large minced basil leaves. Frost, and enjoy!

Now, while your eating these little yummy bites, you can check out the challenge yourself here.
Give it a try, it'll stretch your cupcake imagination a bit and you have a chance to win the coolest prizes! But for now, please vote for me, and you can do that here by voting for ME, between September 28th and October 1st! I am listed as LaDue & Crew on the post, and on Flickr as mrsladue05, don't forget!!

I think these are gonna be some cool prizes for the lucky winner!

Prize providers:
ETSY artist METAL SUGAR, as well as our corporate sponsors HEAD CHEFS by FIESTA PRODUCTS , HELLO CUPCAKE by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson, JESSIE STEELE APRONS, CUPCAKE COURIER , and TASTE OF HOME .