A 100-Year-Old Tomato Soup Spice Cake Recipe is Viral on TikTok
Laura McQuarrie — May 12, 2026 — Lifestyle
References: campbells & foodandwine
A recipe for Tomato Soup Spice Cake first appeared in an undated cookbook sometime around the 20s or 30s, and in 2026, the recipe, popularized by post-war economic hardship, has been revived on TikTok. The warmly spiced cake is viral for its novel use of a can of Campbell's condensed tomato soup, and it's said to be comparable to something like pumpkin bread thanks to the use of warming spices like cinnamon and cloves.
On its website, Campbell's shares a recipe for Tomato Soup Spice Cupcakes, which makes the social media sensation particularly snackable, and other than a condensed tomato soup can, the ingredients it calls for are fairly ordinary: milk, butter, eggs, softened cream cheese, vanilla extract, confectioners' sugar, and a few other baking staples.
On its website, Campbell's shares a recipe for Tomato Soup Spice Cupcakes, which makes the social media sensation particularly snackable, and other than a condensed tomato soup can, the ingredients it calls for are fairly ordinary: milk, butter, eggs, softened cream cheese, vanilla extract, confectioners' sugar, and a few other baking staples.
Trend Themes
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Pantry-ingredient Nostalgia — Signals potential for new product lines that reframe shelf-stable pantry items like condensed soups as premium baking and flavoring ingredients.
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Viral Heritage Recipes — Demonstrates consumer appetite for digitized, century-old recipes that can reshape recipe discovery and home-cooking trends through platform-driven virality.
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Snackable Retro Desserts — Highlights demand for portable, single-serve reinterpretations of traditional desserts that blend comfort flavors with modern convenience.
Industry Implications
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Food Manufacturing — Rises in interest for unconventional ingredient uses indicate opportunities to reformulate or co-brand classic pantry products toward baking and hybrid food segments.
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Social Media Marketing — The TikTok-driven resurgence of a 100-year-old recipe exemplifies how short-form video can redefine product relevance and create rapid shifts in consumer purchasing behavior.
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Consumer Packaged Goods Retail — Shifts in shopper curiosity toward nostalgic and multipurpose items suggest possibilities for novel merchandising, bundling, and private-label launches centered on pantry staples.
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