If you are of Indian origin, I think you will feel the same way I feel about tutti frutti (it's candied peel for Americans). To me it brings back a lot of wonderful (sweet) memories of enjoying the summer vacation and special occasions with tutti frutti cake and ice cream.
One of my most favorite childhood eats was the milk cakes studded with these itsy bity pieces of tutti frutti. Long train journeys and short road trips where never complete without these cakes in our family. It was a tradition to buy a packet or two of these cakes while packing for the trip.
These cakes came in a lot of flavors, were soft, buttery and had a melt-in-your mouth texture. It tastes and feels more or less like a pound cake. Never did I think that I would be baking one of these tutti frutti cake myself.
I have been looking for these cakes in the Indian stores here for sometime now but couldn't find it. So I thought why not give it a try and bake an eggless tutti frutti cake at home. I searched for tutti frutti cake recipes in Google and it showed a lot of recipes from my fellow Indian bloggers.
After looking at a couple of recipes I decided to use this recipe as a base and mix in the tutti frutti and the result was stunning.
I already have an eggless pound cake recipe here, in which I have used silken tofu to replace the eggs and felt that the cake was quite dense.
I would have tried using part silken tofu and part yogurt like in this strawberry cream cake recipe which turned out perfect, but I didn't have silken tofu at home.
So I decided to use a combination of yogurt and homemade applesauce recipe. The tutti frutti cake did turn out well but I'm thinking that the silken tofu and yogurt combination will be more perfect. Can't wait to try that tutti frutti cake recipe one of these days.
Recipe
Tutti Frutti Cake
Ingredients
- 1 And ½ Cups Cake Flour
- 1 And ¼ Teaspoon Baking Powder
- ½ Teaspoon Baking Soda
- ¼ Teaspoon Salt
- ¾ Cup Sugar
- 13 Tablespoons Butter Softened (See Note 1)
- ¼ Cup Unsweetened Applesauce
- ½ Cup Plain Yogurt
- 3 Tablespoons Milk
- 1 And ½ Teaspoons Vanilla Extract
- ½ Cup Tutti Frutti (Candied Peel)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F/180C for 15 minutes. Lightly butter a loaf pan (see My Note 2) and line it with parchment paper.
- Place the tutti frutti in a small bowl and mix in a tablespoon of flour (from the flour measured for the cake), separating the pieces sticking together. This prevents the fruit from sinking to the bottom of the cake.
- In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, soda and salt. Whisk in the sugar.
- To this flour mixture add the butter and all the wet ingredients.
- Start blending the ingredients with an electric mixer at low speed and gradually increase the speed. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and continue beating the mixture for about 5-6 minutes. Now you can see that the mixture would have doubled because of the creaming of butter and sugar. Now mix in the tutti frutti pieces and combine it until its evenly distributed in the batter.
- Transfer the tutti fruiti cake batter to the prepared pan and smooth the batter out. Bake for about 55-65 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. Mine was done in about 58 minutes. The cake also started browning on the sides after about 30 minutes. So I covered the pan with an aluminum foil around the 33rd minute and completed the baking.
- Remove the pan from the oven and place it on a wire rack. Cool it for about 15 minutes and remove the cake from the pan and place it on the rack to cool completely. Leave it overnight before you can slice it. The more time you give it the easier it is to slice. I got very neat slices the following afternoon.
My Notes
- The original recipe mentioned ½ cup plus ⅓ cup of butter which is 13 tablespoons. The butter I get here does not have the tablespoon marking. So I used little more than ¾th cup (12 tablespoons) of butter.
- A 9x5 inch was used for this measurement in the original recipe and I felt that an 8x4 inch should be fine. So I used it and I didn't get the shape I expected. I was expecting a square cake slice but what I got was a perfect rectangle.
- I have replaced 3 eggs in the original recipe with ¼ cup of applesauce and ½ cup yogurt.
Taste & Texture
- I knew that this tutti frutti cake was a winner as soon as it came out of the oven. It had the perfect color, looked absolutely perfect, fantastic aroma and had a crumb-y outer layer. I coudln't wait to slice it and taste the cake. So I was hasty as always and started slicing the cake within an hour or so and what do you think would have happened? Of course I did not get neat slices, it was all crumbly. But guess what, the taste was lip-smacking delicious. It was totally worth slicing the cake. I couldn't resist and cut a few more slices for all of us to taste and it got thumbs-up from everybody. My mother-in-law felt that maybe I could have reduced the sugar a little bit. I also thought the same but after tasting it once again the next day, I concluded that it was just fine. If you are going to serve it with ice-cream or thinking of using it as a base for some other dessert then you should be cutting back on the sugar. Otherwise it should be fine as such.
- I saved the remaining half of the cake for taking pictures. So when I cut the cake the following day evening, I got perfect slices. It was so easy to cut. So bake the cake and forget it until the next day. This cake looked and tasted as good as the milk cakes I have tasted in India.
Nutrition
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DhevaDurga Sivaraju says
Hi Sister, Last week I did the vanilla cake. It was marvelous. My family enjoyed eating the cake and they requested me to do it again. Next time I want to try this Tutti Frutti Cake. I can't wait to try and taste this cake.
Madhuram says
You're very welcome ji 🙂
vegan-muffin says
In my country this type of cake is called "keks". I have a lot of good memories related to this taste 🙂
Seema says
Hi Madhu. If using eggs then what shud I replace
Madhuram says
3 eggs (omit applesauce and yogurt)
Mini says
Can I make this cake in gas oven ???
Madhuram says
I guess so Mini. I haven't tried in one.
CR says
Hi! When you say cups, what size do you refer to? I have never baked with cups before and always use a weighing scale (I'm from the UK!)
Madhuram says
It's the standard baking size cups we use in North America. I have a conversion chart that you can check. http://www.egglesscooking.com/baking-101/baking-measurements/
Priya says
So I just wanted to know---- do I use unsalted butter or the salted one--- I know this will make a huge difference in the taste. Please suggest?
Madhuram says
You can use either. But if you use salted butter omit the salt in the recipe.
Sonal says
If I have to make them as cupcake s how much time should I cook it for ?
Madhuram says
I'm thinking about 20-22 mins maybe.
Shalini says
I made this cake for Christmas and it was better than all the cakes before. A definite winner.
Madhuram says
Thanks Shalini.
Laxmi says
I was not very sure about trying this cake as there are amazing raving reviews but also people have pointed out some flaws about following the receipe to the T.
My tryout has been amazing and everyeone loved it .Very fluffy and moist cake. The cake turned out great and my mother in law was so happy.
Madhuram says
Thanks for the feedback Laxmi.
Neesha says
Hi,
I had tried your carrot cake and it came out wonderful. I am now a fan of your site.
My son's birthday is coming up and want to make tutti frutti cake you have here.
Two questions:
Can i make this as cup cakes? If yes just use same recipe and pour it in cupcakes mld instead or there are changes i have to make?
Can i find tutti fruity in american stores? Which one? Indian stores here do not have it.
Thanks
Madhuram says
I was on vacation, so couldn't answer your question any sooner Neesha. I'm thinking it should work out good as cupcakes too. You can find tutti fruitti as candied peel in the baking aisle of American supermarkets.
Roshni Trivedi says
Hi!
Please let me know that can we cook this cake in cooker.
If yes how much time it will take and how it will works.
Madhuram says
I'm sorry that I can't help you with this Roshni because I have not tried it.
Sumitra says
Hi Madhu,
Thanks for your wonderful website. I have tried a lot of your recipes and have had very good results; however, this time it was a baking disaster and the first bad one I experienced. I was very careful with every step. I used the fresh box of baking soda, baking powder, resisted myself from using the electric beater due to the cake flour, and still the cake sank and to my surprise not only on the top, but also on the bottom (had not seen this before)! I was kind of disppointed, but felt that the taste would be fine! However, the candied peel I used spoiled the entire cake. I was too excited to get a box of tutti fruiti at my local store, but not sure what was wrong with the box. I wish all the peel had sunk to the bottom, but it was so uniformly distributed that every bite had pieces of these. These peels tasted awful and were nothing like the little delicious fruit tidbits that we taste in milk cakes. The cake did come out in one piece, but I was a little hasty and when I tried to transfer it to a plate from the rack, it totally crumbled up! The taste of the cake without the fruit bits was good, but it was so hard to separate the bits from the cake. I wish I had tasted the fruit bits before adding them to the batter. I ended up returning the fruit bits to the store, but still may try making this one again w/o the fruit bits.
Madhuram says
I'm not sure what went wrong because I have baked using candied peel a lot of times and haven't face any problem at all. So I'm not able to tell why it was bitter. Regarding the cake sinking, it could be the oven temperature too.
priyanka jain says
i want to make this cake in microwave please help me with the duration.
Madhuram says
I have not baked in microwave ovens, but I'm guessing 3-5 minutes should be enough.
Veena says
Hi Madhuram,
Can't thank you enough for eggless baking. After baking Tutti-Fruti cake, everything was just good except cake sank. This time I baked cake in counter top oven. In one of your recipe, you mentioned that cake flour and electric blenders are not compatible. What are the reasons, when cake sinks?
Thanks
Madhuram says
It could be one of the many reasons listed here: http://www.lindyscakes.co.uk/2009/05/13/why-do-my-cakes-sink-in-the-middle/ I tried the eggless vanilla cupcake recipe using Ener-G twice by mixing the batter with an electric beater and both the times the cupcakes rose beautifully but when it came out of the oven it started sinking. I'm guessing the reason is overmixing/beating the batter which incorporates too much air in an already light protein structure of cake flour.
smita says
Hi, cake was awesome.I tried your vanilla cake as well. You recipe never went wrong for me. Thanks a lot for wonderful recipes.
Madhuram says
You're welcome Smita.
Jas says
Hi there, this is an excellent receipe but only thing went wrong was my tutti fruti got sunk at the bottom even though I used the trick you mentioned. Any alternate way to improve. But otherwise this was SUPERB!!!!!! I am do happy that I can follow someone who l pea that baking is possible without eggs, thanks for proving it.
Madhuram says
Tossing it in flour before stirring it in the batter is the only trick Jas.
SV says
Hi,
What will be the sustitute for cake flour & pls do give me the measurements & also let me know if it can be baked in microwave, if yes then let me know the time duration. Thanks in advance.
Madhuram says
For a cup of cake flour, place 2 tablespoons of cornstarch in a 1 cup measure and fill the rest with all purpose flour. For half a cup, you would use 1 tablespoon of conrstarch and the rest with all purpose flour. I have not baked cakes in microwave oven, so I don't know how it works. Please Google it or see if you can find any information about it in the manual which came with the oven.
Hastha says
If i dont find unsweetened apple sauce, what can i use instead? Or else how can i make it at home?
Madhuram says
Check the FAQ page to know how to make applesauce at home. Pureed silken tofu is another substitute you can try.
Uma Ramnath says
The butter measurement of 13 tbl sp is before or after softening
Madhuram says
It's before sofetening.
Priya doshi says
Hi, its the first time I'm commenting on a recipe because I always had some problem with the outcome of my dish. But I have to say that this is the first recipe which was totally accurate and delicious. Thanks a lot for the recipe and I'm gonna try your other recipes also.
Madhuram says
You're welcome Priya. I hope you will like the other recipes too.
Jay says
Hi Madhu...What changes do you think I should make to the cake if I omit the candied peel and need a plain cake?
Madhuram says
Keep everything else the same and just omit the candied peel.
uma ramnath says
My husband doesn't take yogurt , what can I substitute for that
Madhuram says
You could try silken tofu. If buttermilk is okay that could be an option too.
ystävä says
5 star recipe of course. Let me know some good sweet recipes where you dont use salt or egg. It is for fast purpose.
Madhuram says
Thanks Ystava. You can omit the salt in all of the recipes. Salt is usually added to even out the sweetness of a sweet dish.
ystävä says
Hi, thank you again for the recipe. It really works. I have tried both of the option, eggless and with the egg. Egless was better! My whole family loved it. Nice to get all the credit when effort is yours! Hope you dont mind 🙂
Madhuram says
Thanks Ystava. I too should not get the full credit because I too was inspired from another recipe. So enjoy all the compliments you get.
Maha says
Hello Madam..
Your cake looks do delicious and yummy which tempted me to try one. This is going to be my first cake experiment. I would like to know whether we can replace the yogurt and milk with condensed milk or can we use the Unsweetened Applesauce alone. Please suggest me. Thanks in advance.
Regards,
Maha
Madhuram says
Thanks Maha. I wouldn't go with the condensed milk option because then we would have to adjust the sugar and that's a lot of guessing. If you use all applesauce the cake would be very dense and might take even longer time to bake. You may also have to increase the quantity of baking powder by another 1/4 teaspoon. If adding some more butter is okay, try 1 cup butter and 1/2 cup applesauce and see how it works.
Maha says
Thank you so much for the suggestion you have give Maduram. I'll try today and let you know the outcome...:)
Sujata says
We have yellow cake mix & white cake mix in the grocery store. Today I am Baking it once again. Let's see what is the result.
Thanks,
Sujata
Madhuram says
Oh! Sujata, I think you have misunderstood something. I have mentioned cake flour in the recipe and not cake mix. Cake mix already has margarine/shortening, some leavening agents and many other ingredients. So it will not work in this recipe. You have to use either cake flour or all purpose flour in this recipe.
Sujata says
I am baking the cake. I don't know what went wrong? My cake is overflowing though the loaf pan I am using is size 9.25x4.25. If it gets brown, how am I going to put a foil on it? I am using white cake flour instead of yellow. Is it because of that? Help me pls.
Thanks,
Sujata
Madhuram says
What do you mean by yellow cake flour, Sujata?
anjali malik says
Hi, I need a cupcake and muffin recipe, with weights in grams please. Basically, looking for an eggless cupcake and muffin recipe, with buttermilk or curd as anegg substistute, not interested in using apple cider vinegar or white vinegar please. Thanks.
Madhuram says
Hi Anjali, I don't have first hand experience using weight instead of cups. So please check this link: http://allrecipes.com/HowTo/Cup-to-Gram-Conversions
Sejal says
I am currently baking the cake. Really excited. Hope it turns out good. Lot of people who are looking for candied peel, it is also called "fruit cake mix". Christmas is the best time to get it and most of the grocery stores carry it. Will post my comments again once the cake is baked.
Madhuram says
Hope you got it right Sejal. That's true about the candied peel. Now is the time to find it in all grocery stores.
Sejal says
My cake was a hit at the Christmas party....my first cake sunk..made antoher one and came out good..but both the cakes tasted awesome...delicious...fantastic...thank you so much Madhuram
Madhuram says
You're welcome Sejal. Do rate the recipe if you have a moment.
ranjani says
I just saw the prev comment. Yes, it was brown inside
ranjani says
Hi, I tried this today. the cake was good but had lil crispy edges. It was also brownish. Is it bec I used all purpose flour?
Madhuram says
I don't think it's because of all purpose flour. Maybe the temperature is too high. If you try this recipe again maybe you could bake at 350 for the first 40 minutes and then reduce the temperature to 325 for rest of the baking time.
ranjani says
Ok.I will do that next time. Everytime I see your site
I keep thinking what a perfectionist you are. Right
from the recipes to how you maintain the site. Not a
lotta ppl do it this way. Congrats!!
Madhuram says
Thank you very much for your compliments Ranjani. My job is just baking, writing the recipe and few suggestions. All the rest is taken care by my husband. I can't thank him enough for his contribution to the blog.
Puja says
Hello Madhuram,
I just tried this recipe yesterday. Cake came out very soft and tasted awesome.
I followed the recipe to the T but the cake turned brown inside, it wasnt beautiful yellow color as i expected.
Could you please let me know what could have gone wrong?
Is it necessary to add baking soda along with baking powder?
Recipe is definitely a keeper.
Madhuram says
Puja, I really don't see any reason why the cake would turn brown on the inside. Outside I can understand, baking it for some extra time or higher temperature could be the possible reason. But in that case too, the cake would have become dry, I don't think you had that problem because you have mentioned that the cake was soft. But brown on the inside?!
Jahnavi says
Yes Madhuram,I may have used old Baking Powder.It is not expired but more than year old. I also think that it might not cool / store properly.in case of muffins, How do I store muffins ? without muffin liners ? Thanks so much.
Jahnavi says
Hello Madhuram,
I am fan of your eggless and easy cooking. I tried many of your recipes and it came out really well. but since last couple of times I am getting gooey kind of muffin and bread.. i don't know where it went wrong. So i need your help to figure it out. I had make hundreds of time Almond Butter Bread, but last week that one also came out gooey and sticky after one day of storing.Please Help Me.. Yeaterday i went to Walmart and Finally i got tutti fruiti, they stock up for christmas.. I really want to back this bread but now afraid of result..!
Thanks
Madhuram says
Are you sure you are not over mixing the batter or using very old baking powder/soda? Can you remember of anything that you are doing different than before?
Suma says
Hi Madhu
Thank you so much for the wonderful recipe... I just tried it today morning as I am visiting a friend who has kids... What can I say... unbelievable.... by far the best eggless cake I have tried.... I added a little lemon zest to the batter and my home now smells wonderful 🙂 and the taste is awesome... I baked 2 cakes one for home and one for the friend and its hot out of the oven and I am eating away... I cant even wait for it to cool 🙂 Thank you so much for the wonderful recipe... Looking fwd to trying your other recipes....
Thanks Thanks Thanks a bunch
Regards
Suma
Madhuram says
You're welcome Suma. Please do rate the recipe for the benefit of others who want to try this recipe.
purnima says
hi,
I liked the egg less recipe u suggested, I love to bake and, most of the time I use eggs, the cakes come out fantastic. But the times when I try to make egg less version I lack in skills it seems.
Recently I made an egg less cake, and it lacked the texture of a regular cake, there wasn't any sponginess to it.. and moreover it did not taste like a cake. I would like to know, what could be the leavening agent, that can be used instead of eggs, that gives a good rise to the cake, making it soft and spongy.
Also in the above recipe u have mentioned using cake flour, where i live we don't get cake flour ( I have looked for it. What would you recommend instead?
Thanks again, and your cake looks just yummy...
Sree says
Hi Madhuram,
I tried this cake just today and I beat the cake mixture for 4 min gradually increasing the speed on the hand mixer, I used al purpose flour instead of the cake flour you mentioned.
I got a cake that was sunken in the middle, tasted awesome though!
Also my tutti fruti ( candied peel) lost color after baking
Could you please help?
Thanks,
Sree
Rupa Lakshminarayan says
Hi Madhu
I made this cake yesterday and it tasted really good.
But 2 questions i have
1) My cake sunk in the center portion throughout the length of the cake. (my bake time was 60 mins)
2) The cake was very chewy (dont know wats the correct word)...i mean it was extremely moist and had some chew to it...not like the crumbly dry effect the photo on your website has.
Can suggest something to help on above 2 issues ?
Thanks for all the lovely recipes you share with us.
- Rupa
Madhuram says
I'm guessing that you would have underbaked the cake Rupa. Also over or under beating the butter and sugar would make the cake to sink in the middle. You have to leave the cake undisturbed for minimum of 24 hours. I too got very moist/mushy slices when I cut it immediately. The pictures I have here were taken after giving enough rest time (about a whole day).
Rupa Lakshminarayan says
I'll try again keeping your above suggestions in mind.
Thank you for taking time to reply to our queries.
Krsna says
Hi Madhuram,
i tried this with the following substitutes and i was really concerned but the cake turned out great. thank you so much for another lovely recipe
1. instead of white flour i used wheat flour like chaptai flour
2. instead of butter i used oil.
Madhuram says
You're welcome Krsna. It's great to know that wheat flour and oil works just fine. Could you please rate the recipe.
vani sudarshan says
Hi Madhuram, thank you for the wonderful recipe . I baked this cake yesturday and it came out perfectly, very moist and fuffy. Thank you for the eggless Tutti fruitti cake. Thanks a lot. Everyone in my family and friends around liked it a lot. Instead of yogurt, I did go and use the whole cup of applesause. It came out really well. Thanks a lot.
Madhuram says
Oh! That was very quick Vani. I'm so happy that you got it right and you liked it. Could you rate the recipe?
sahiti says
Hi Mathuram,Thanks for the quick reply.When I bake , even though the cake or the bread is cooked completely,the top doesn't brown and remains some what creamish in colour.As I don't use eggs I combine milk,oil and sugar and brush the top with the mix to replace egg wash, but not getting the desired effect.can you please help?
Rupa Lakshminarayan says
cake looks yummy
what a coincidence that i was searching for Tutti Frutti cake recipe yesterday and surprised to see your email today !!
Priya (Yallapantula) Mitharwal says
wow, that looks and sounds soooooo good and I love the fact that there are no eggs in it. I have bookmarked it 🙂
notyet100 says
my fav,.thanks for the recipe,..;-)
sheila says
Hi Madhuram,
Easy receipe for a tuti fruti cake.can't wait to try this soon.By cake flour do you mean all purpose flour ?
Madhuram says
Sheila, cake flour is different from all purpose flour. The former has lesser protein content than All purpose flour, making it very delicate and is suitable for white cakes and other tender baked goods. You can get it in stores as cake/pastry flour. You can also make it at home. 1 cup cake flour = 3/4 cup all purpose flour + 2 tablespoons cornstarch. This is the general susbstitution, but I haven't used it so far.
sahiti says
".....The cake also started browning on the sides after about 30 minutes. So I covered the pan with an aluminum foil around the 33rd minute and completed the baking."
As far as baking is concerned, I am a beginner and learning the tricks of the trade from experts like you.Can you please explain what purpose does it serve.
Madhuram says
Hi Sahiti, thanks for visiting. As far as some baked goods are concerned (especially in the case of breads, pies, where prolonged baking is required), while baking, the outer layer gets cooked pretty sooner than the inner part. The outer layer will start browning and may also burn before the bread is baked completely. So to stop this browning we cover the cake with aluminum foil.
Madhura says
The cake looks really tender. Even I have a basic eggless plain cake recipe which i've used to make different flavoured cake and it has only 1/2 cup butter for 1 1/2 cups flour.
Sometimes i use even less butter to make it into choco chip muffins
Divya Vikram says
Tutti fruiti brings back some loving memories. Cake looks perfect Madhu.
Divya says
Hi Madhu,
I can't wait to try this.
But where do you find this candied peel.
I live in SF bay area and would like to know where to find it and what to ask for.
If you know of specific shop(names), it would be very very useful.
Could you please let me know?
Madhuram says
Hi Divya, you can find it in the regular grocery stores itself in the baking aisle. It will be in small plastic tubs. Or else google for "cake supplies in SF bay area" and you should be able to find specialty stores where all these stuff are available in bulk. I got a result for Spun Sugar in Berkley and a store called Rainbow. I don't have a clue about SF area, so I'm not able to provide you with much details.
Priya says
Super gorgeous and marvellous looking cake..
Mathangi says
Great!Waiting to try this!Thanks for this and many more wonderful recipes!!!Keep going!
Madhuram says
You're welcome Mathangi.