Tutti frutti cake is a popular variety of Indian cake made with flour, tutti frutti (candied papaya), sugar and flavorings. This cake can be made both with eggs and without eggs. I share an eggless tutti frutti cake recipe that has a soft, light and moist crumb. This Eggless Cake Recipe is also easy and even newbies in baking can make this cake easily.
About Tutti Frutti Cake
This is a delightful cake with tutti frutti being one of the star ingredient. Of course there is the cake but without tutti frutti it will be a simple vanilla cake. The tutti frutti brings in some chewy bites and sweet pops of flavor in the cake.
To make this tutti frutti cake, I have adapted my recipe of Vanilla Cake . I have been making this tutti frutti cake for many years now. In this recipe, I have used fresh homemade curd (yogurt) as an egg replacement.
I also add some acidity to the batter with apple cider vinegar (can swap with lemon juice or white vinegar) – which when combined with baking soda, helps the batter to aerate and makes for a soft fluffier cake.
Earlier when making the cake, I used to add ½ cup oil or melted butter in the recipe, but later I started reducing the amount of oil. I felt that with even with ¼ cup oil or melted butter the cake gets a lovely light crumb and is moist.
You can use both melted butter or oil in the recipe. I have made the cake with both oil and butter on various occasions. Both give good results in the cake. If using oil, then use a neutral flavored and neutral tasting oil like sunflower oil.
What is Tutti Frutti
Tutti frutti are basically candied fruits made with pineapple, cherries, currants, watermelon rind, apricots, various berries etc. In India what we call tutti frutti are candied colorful bits of papaya. They are made from green unripe papaya. Making homemade tutti frutti is an extensive and time consuming process.
While you can make them at home, but if you live in India you can also buy them easily from grocery stores and online. If you live in US, then you can find them in Indian grocery stores and online as well.
Tutti frutti is one ingredient that I use, which has artificial colors. I don’t have the time and energy to make these candied raw papaya pieces at home. So I buy from outside when I have to add them in recipes. A few recipes where you can add them are these:
How to make Tutti Frutti Cake
Sift Dry Ingredients
1: Take a sieve. Keep a mixing bowl below the sieve. In the sieve add 1.5 cups all purpose flour – about 187 to 190 grams all purpose flour.
2. Then add 1 pinch salt, ¼ teaspoon cinnamon powder and 1 teaspoon baking powder.
If you do not have cinnamon powder, then you can skip it. Alternatively you can add ¼ teaspoon cardamom powder.
3. Sift all the dry ingredients.
4. Now add ½ cup tutti frutti.
5. With a spoon or spatula, just mix the tutti frutti with the sifted flour so that they get coated with the flour. Keep aside.
6. Grease a loaf pan measuring 8.5 x 4.5 x 2.5 inches with butter and oil and set aside. You can even line the pan with butter paper or parchment paper. Also preheat the oven at 180 degrees Celsius or 356 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes.
A round cake pan having 7 to 8 inches diameter also works well.
Mix Sugar with Liquids
7. In a bowl take ¾ cup sugar (160 grams sugar).
8. Add ½ cup water.
9. Begin to mix the sugar with water with a whisk or spoon.
10. The entire sugar should dissolve before starting with the next step.
11. After all of the sugar has dissolved, add ¼ cup melted butter or oil. You can melt butter in a small pan or bowl and keep it ready.
Use unsalted butter. But if you have salted butter then skip adding the salt when sifting the flour.
12. With a whisk stir briskly for 2 to 3 minutes so that the melted butter mixes with water evenly.
13. Add 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or scrape half of a vanilla bean and add the tiny seeds in the solution. Here I have used vanilla bean. Mix again well. Keep this sugar solution aside.
Make Curd (Yogurt) Mixture
14. In another bowl take 3 tablespoons fresh curd or yogurt. Ensure that the curd is not sour.
15. Add 1 tablespoon water.
16. Add 1 tablespoon vinegar. You can use apple cider vinegar or white vinegar. I have used apple cider vinegar. You can also use 1 tablespoon lemon juice instead of vinegar.
17. Stir and mix very well with a spoon or small wired whisk.
18. Now add ½ teaspoon baking soda.
19. Stir and mix again very well.
20. You will see the solution frothing and bubbling.
Make Tutti Frutti Cake Batter
21. Quickly add the prepared sugar solution to the dry sifted flour mixture.
22. Immediately, add the bubbling curd solution also to the flour mixture in the bowl.
23. Be quick and begin to mix gently to a smooth batter with a wired whisk. Mix with light pressure from your hands on the whisk.
24. Do not overdo the mixing. You can even fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Tiny lumps are fine in the batter.
25. Pour the batter in the greased or lined cake pan.
26. Gently tap the cake pan on the kitchen table top once or twice.
Bake Tutti Frutti Cake
27. Place the cake pan in the oven.
28. Bake the cake at 180 degrees Celsius or 356 degrees Fahrenheit in a preheated oven for 40 to 45 minutes or more or less if required.
Baking time will vary depending on the temperature conditions in the oven and the size of the oven. Remember not to open the oven door until the cake is 3/4 baked. Opening the door many times will cause your cake to sink in the center.
29. Check with a bamboo skewer or fork and it should come out clean. If the cake is baked well then the bamboo skewer will have a few crumbs on it and no sticky cake batter.
If the cake is under baked then keep back in the oven and bake for some more minutes.
30. Place the pan on a rack to cool down.
31. When the cake has completely cooled at room temperature, then using a butter knife loosen the edges of the cake. Invert the pan on a chopping board. Gently tap the bottom of the cake pan and remove the tutti frutti cake.
32. Slice the cake.
32. Serve tutti frutti cake slices as it is or with some milk or tea or coffee. Remaining cake slices or loaf can be refrigerated in an airtight container and lightly warmed before serving.
If you are looking for more Eggless cakes then do check:
Cake Recipes
Cake Recipes
Cake Recipes
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Tutti Frutti Cake
Ingredients
For dry mixture
- 1.5 cups all purpose flour – about 187 to 190 grams
- 1 pinch salt
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon powder (ground cinnamon) – optional
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ cup tutti frutti – approximate 80 grams
For sugar solution
- ½ cup water
- ¾ cup raw sugar or regular sugar – 160 grams, or add as required * check point 3 in notes
- ¼ cup melted butter or neutral flavored oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla powder or half of a vanilla bean, scraped
For curd mixture
- 3 tablespoons Curd (yogurt), dairy or vegan
- 1 tablespoon water
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar or white vinegar
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
Instructions
Sifting dry ingredients
- Take a sieve. Keep a mixing bowl below the sieve. In the sieve add the all-purpose flour, salt, cinnamon powder and baking powder.
- Sift all the dry ingredients.
- Now add the tutti frutti.
- Simply mix the tutti frutti with the flour so that they get coated with the flour.
- Grease a loaf pan with butter and oil and keep aside. You can even line the pan with butter paper or parchment paper. Also preheat oven at 180 degrees Celsius/356 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes.
Making sugar solution
- In a bowl take sugar and water.
- Mix the sugar with water till all the sugar granules are dissolved.
- After all of the sugar has dissolved, add melted butter or oil. You can melt butter in a small pan and keep it ready. With a whisk mix briskly for 2 to 3 minutes till the oil has mixed evenly with the water.
- Add 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or scrape half of a vanilla bean and add the tiny seeds in the solution. Mix again well. Keep this sugar solution aside.
Making curd mixture
- In another bowl take fresh curd or yogurt, water and vinegar.
- You can use apple cider vinegar or white vinegar. I have used apple cider vinegar. You can also use lemon juice instead of vinegar. Mix very well.
- Now add baking soda. Stir to combine so that the baking soda is mixed evenly.
- You will see the mixture frothing and bubbling.
Making tutti frutti cake batter
- Quickly add the sugar solution to the sifted dry ingredients.
- Then immediately add the bubbling curd solution.
- Mix gently to a smooth batter with light pressure from the hands on the whisk. Do not overdo the mixing. You can even fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Tiny lumps are fine in the batter.
- Pour the tutti frutti cake batter in the greased or lined cake pan.
- Gently tap the cake pan on the kitchen table top once or twice.
Baking tutti frutti cake
- Place the cake pan in the preheated oven.
- Bake the cake at 180 degrees Celsius/356 degrees Fahrenheit in the preheated oven for 40 to 45 minutes or more or less as required. Baking time will vary depending on the temperature conditions in the oven and the size of the oven.
- Check with a skewer or fork and it should come out clean.
- Place the pan on a wired rack to cool.
- When the tutti frutti cake has completely cooled at room temperature, then using a butter knife loosen the edges of the cake. Invert the pan on a chopping board. Gently tap the bottom of the cake pan and remove the cake.
- Slice the cake.
- Serve the eggless tutti frutti cake as is or with some milk or tea or coffee. Remaining cake can be refrigerated and lightly warmed before serving.
Notes
Nutrition Info (Approximate Values)
This Tutti Frutti Cake post from the archives (December 2013) has been republished and updated on 23 September 2021.
Hi Amit,
I tried this tutti frutii cake recipe in otg. Taste was good but cake broke and got stuck to the bottom of pan and wasn’t firm too.
Please suggest.
ritu, firstly only take out the cake when its lukewarm or completely cooled. if the cake is removed from pan, when it is still hot, it will break. sticking to the pan is also as i feel the cake was taken out when it was hot. let the cake cool completely and then you can remove it from the pan.
Substitute for tutti frutti?
you can add dry fruits and nuts or candied fruits.
Any substitute for yoghurt?
achu, you can use buttermilk. but just halve the amount.
Hi dassana
Can this cake be made with wholewheat flour? if yes any changes in the ingredients?
Thanks
sakshi, you can use whole wheat flour. just add some more water as whole wheat flour absorbs more water. the rest of the ingredients are same.
Thanks a lot will definitely give it a try 🙂
welcome sakshi.
Hi Dasanna
I made this cake with 1 cup of wheat flour and 1/2 cup of all purpose flour.It turned out awesome.Thanks for the recipe
welcome sravs. glad to know this.
Hello,
Thank you for the yummm recipe. I have a question, my cake becomes hard on the top if I bake it for 40/45 minutes. Kindly guide what can be done to prevent it from becoming hard on top?
Welcome Ganesh. Cover the top of the cake with aluminium foil and then bake.
hi dassana! there seems to be a typo error.addition of tutti frutti seems missing in how to prepare recipe.
thanks meveera for informing me. i have corrected the typo error.
This is a superb recipe. However what can I use to replace yogurt in this recipe.
poornima, you can use buttermilk instead of yogurt. 2 tablespoons will be fine.
Too nice all urs recipes r gr8 n spelly dey r loved bcoz u r provoking eggless baking thanks I m gonna try ur dis recipe too but just one question I have in my home synthetic white vinegar can I use it as u mention above very confused ll it okkk plzz reply
you can use synthetic white vinegar. thanks.
Hi dassana,
I tried this cake today. It turned out great in taste, except a few things:
1. Initially it rose well while baking but sank in the middle after 1 hour.
2. Even after baking for 1.5 hrs, knife came out with sticky crumbs. But cake top had ‘left the pan walls’ so I removed it. I cooled the pan out for 15 min. Upon inverting, the cake came out except a bottom middle portion that stuck to the baking pan. It was moist & sticky inside but tasted good. Entire boundary crust (top as well as bottom & walls) was a bit crusty and over baked.
3. The slices in your cake pic look firm, while mine was very soft. After how much time do you slice the cake?
I halved the recipe to make it in 5 inch round pan which is 4 inches deep. I measured all ingredients & they were within shelf life (except the maida but it looked fine i guess).
Thank you
ruchi, 1.5 hours is a very long time. usually cakes of these proportions take 30 minutes to max 45 minutes. i think something has gone wrong with the proportions and halving the recipe has not worked well. in baking if there is a certain ratio used for flour, sugar, butter and liquids then these recipes usually work well when doubling and tripling or halving. but when there is no ratio used, then halving or doubling can cause problems. thats why certain cake recipes like pound or butter cake work well when halved or doubled. so is the case with breads and cookies, if a ratio has been used.
the cake has been baked, but the stickiness and moistness is due to the cake having a dense doughy texture. this could be due to over mixing or less liquids in the batter or due to the baking powder/baking soda not being fresh. sometimes if only baking powder or baking soda is used in the recipe, always check for its freshness by mixing them with a solution of water + vinegar (both water and vinegar can be few teaspoons). if the baking powder or baking soda, fizzes and bubbles, that means they are fresh and active.
i slice the cake after cooling it completely. even when the cake is warm, i do not slice it.
The baking soda+curd mix was quite frothy so that’s working. I’ve weikfield baking powder and the label shows it’s within expiry date but I’ll check with lime to make sure. I corrected the batter consistency with water this time.
Actually I changed ingredient ratios based on this: keikoscake.com/panconversion.htm to suit my small 5in pan size. I think it wasn’t a good idea.
In most of your recipes 6-8 inch pans are mentioned. I’ve a 9 inch pan also. Can I use it for the 6-8 inch pan recipes?
fine ruchi. when using conversions i feel its better to use approximation (like how we use the method of andaaz in indian cooking). i do this for baking also. sometimes i just make cakes or muffins using the method of andaz and most of the times, the cakes or muffins turn out good.
a cake that can be baked in an 7.5 to 8 inch pan, can also be baked in a 9 inch pan. for a cake baked in 6 inch pan, 9 inch will be large, which might affect the rising and the texture of the cake.
Ability to cook by estimation simplifies many things. I don’t have enough experience in baking yet to have that sense but I’d like to keep practicing… I’m glad 9in pan will work as I’ll be able to try many of your recipes now without modifying.
Your blog is like an online cooking class. Keep it up 🙂
ruchi, practice makes anyone good and perfect. if you try baking more, then you will be easily able to gauge the proportions and make delicious goods. a basic idea of ratios of fat, sugar and flour for various baking recipes always help. there are many books available, which have basic recipes. but all of them have eggs. if you use eggs, then you can purchase these books. let me know. i can tell you two books. for eggless baked goods, some experimentation is needed. but ingredients like condensed milk, flaxseed powder, silken tofu, curd, buttermilk, vinegar or lemon juice work well in replacing eggs.
and thanks for the lovely feedback.
We also don’t use eggs. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to adapt a recipe to eggless version on my own. If there’s a good book for eggless baking then please share the title. I’m also happy learning it from your cake recipes.
ruchi, the indian cookbooks by a few indian authors on eggless baking, has mostly condensed milk used as egg substitutes. and as one reader had pointed out to me, the cakes tastes like mithai as too much of condensed milk is used. you can have a look at this book on amazon titled vegan cupcakes take over the world. i don’t have the book but have heard a lot of good reviews about it.
there is one more book, on eggless baking, but the author only uses apple sauce. the name is everybody’s book of eggless baking. my experience with apple sauce has been good. though i have not tried any of the recipes from this book, but in a few bakes which i experimented with apple sauce, there recipes turned out very good. apple sauce can be made in bulk and then freezed. it freezes very well.
Hi dassana, can I use ghee instead of oil? If yes, what will be combining sequence of ghee, flours and curd-baking soda mixture? Also should it be melted to liquid form or used semi solid?
Thanks
ruchi, you can use ghee. just melt the ghee and it should be in liquid form. so you can use half a cup melted ghee. you can melt both ghee and sugar together also. you can use semi solid ghee also. if using semi solid ghee (about one-third cup), then beat it with sugar till it becomes light and fluffy. then you add this to the flour mixture. just lightly fold or mix. then add the vinegar + curd mixture.
Can I Make muffins from same batter ? Any changes to be made ?
you can make muffins from the same batter. no need to make any changes.
Its realy help to me
Just curious, how long will this cake last if kept in fridge or outside? Is it like the Christmas cakes that can last outside for quite some time and gets better with age? How can you make this cake last longer, if needed?
keep in the fridge. since curd is used, i would suggest to consume it faster. but it stays good for about a week in the fridge. its not like christmas cake that can last outside for some time and gets better with age.
It is very nice;:
thanks.