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Half of December has already passed and smell of Christmas is in the air. My humble apologies are here for my late realization. I definitely don’t belong to that part of the world where Winter is very friendly and stays for a long period. Here winter pays a very short visit.
I still visualize winter based on how I used to experience it in Kolkata. Foggy morning, lazy trams with their rhythmic moves, cozy winter jackets, a piping hot cup of coffee and a tiny piece of cake on the side of the plate. To me winter is all about the smell of the fog, coffee, Nolen Gur, and freshly baked cakes.
It doesn’t matter how many cakes we had during the entire year but the Winter’s first homemade cake is always a Hit. I can still smell the aroma of it. I still cherish my memories of those wonderful winter days when my mother used to bake loads of cake for everybody in family and i used to sit there in a corner to taste and smell the aroma of freshly baked cakes.
I live far away from my mother now and I wish to have those old days back. Alas! Mr. Bhatti had the suggestion of baking cakes on my own though I hated the idea. My mother also supported him (damn!) and handed me over few of her beautiful cake recipes via email. the easiest one is Simple Vanilla Cakewhich I never liked cause of the dullness. So I chose to go with the next easy one and it is Classic English Tutti Frutti Cake or Indian Tea Cake. This is more popularly known as Indian Christmas Palm Cakethough this is not the original Palm Cake. My mother has that recipe too and I’ll share that recipe sometime soon. Recipe is up here now.
But as my today’s pick is Tutti Frutti Cake, I’m sharing the recipe of it. I followed the recipe for every single measurement of it except butter. After the painful wait of 90 mins finally I got my childhood back (literally). I’m sure many of you share similar kind of nostalgic moments with cakes. So let’s Toast for them. Cheers 🙂
Ingredients:
All-purpose flour: 1½ cup + 2 tbsp to coat fruits + 1 tbsp for dusting the baking pan
Sugar: ½ cup ( See Tips)
Unsalted butter: 100 gms + 1 tbsp for greasing the baking pan ( See Tips)
Salt: ½ tsp (if you are using salted butter omit this)
Egg: 2
Milk: ½ cup ( See Tips)
Baking powder: 2 tsp
Tutty frutty: 1 cup
Raisin: ¼ cup
Vanilla essence: 1 tsp
Butter paper: 1 sheet, optional;
Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Grease the baking pan with melted butter and finish dusting with all-purpose flour. Tap the pan to remove excess flour. Cover the inside of the pan with butter paper (if using any). Keep aside for later use.
Sieve and sift all-purpose flour, baking powder and salt (if using any) together in a large bowl. Keep aside.
Take a small bowl and add 2 tbsp of all-purpose flour. Mix the tutti frutti and raisins with it in such a way that all pieces get coated with flour. Keep it aside. ( See Tips)
Take another large bowl or mixing bowl. Beat butter and sugar together in it with the help of a hand mixer/beater till the mixture is creamy.
Add eggs one at a time to the sugar-butter mixture and continue beating until the mixture is smooth.
Add vanilla essence and keep mixing.
Continue mixing while adding milk little by little at a time. Once you notice you batter is becoming a bit runny stop adding milk.
Add flour mixture to the batter slowly and keep mixing until you get a smooth batter.
Finally add tutti frutti and raisin to the batter.
Fold gently into the batter.
Pour the batter in the pre-prepared baking pan. Smoothen the top with the spatula for even baking.
Tap the pan on the kitchen counter few times to let the mixture settle on the pan. ( See Tips)
Set the temperature at 160°C and place the baking tray in the oven. Set the time 60 mins initially. Bake till the cake gets brown color on the top. ( See Tips)
Prick the cake with a skewer or fork to check whether it is done or not. If it comes out clean your cake is done, If not set time for 5-10 more mins.
Once your cake is perfectly done allow it to cool inside the oven for 5-10 mins. then transfer it to the wire rack and let it cool off completely. ( See Tips)
Once the cake is cooled completely cut into wedges or in any other shape and serve it to your friends and family.
Enjoy your Classic Tutti Frutti cake with Coffee.
Tips:
1. It is okay to add little less sugar than the specified measurement but never add more. If you add less sugar your cake will be puffy and yes little less sweet but that will hardly make any difference if you are having perfect spongy cake. But more sugar will not only spoil the taste but it will also produce sloggy and lumpy cake.
2. I always use regular salted butter for the cake mixture but my mother never used salted version.
3. The trick is to use as little milk as possible in the cake mixture. More runny batter you will make more difficulty your cake will face at the time of baking.
4. The flour coating on the tutti-frutti will help to hold the fruit’s position in the batter while baking. Otherwise the fruits will sink to the bottom of the pan.
5. Tapping the baking pan with mixture will help to release air bubbles from inside the batter, if any forms. And the batter will be spread evenly on the pan.
6. Keep checking after initial time specified. It may take 10-15 mins more depending on your oven. Mine took exact 70 mins.
7. Sometimes top of the cake gets the perfect brown color but inside still remains jiggy. Don’t worry about it. Cover the top with a heavy duty foil and continue baking for 10-15 mins more. This will prevent the top from over baking or burning while inside of the cake will continue to bake.
8. Don’t touch or try to cut the cake while it is hot. It is damn fragile now. Allow it to cool. Once it is cooled it will be firm.
Light fruit cake is my favorite 🙂 Rimli this looks so good and perfectly baked 🙂 yum
hi, this is my blog ,
http://from-a-girls-mind.blogspot.com/
nice one!!! i'm going to India next month.. i'll bake it there… in-laws will be happy 😀 I hope i can bake it in pressure cooker…
I've not tried Indian Palm cake but this looks real good! Happy holidays, my friend! xoxo
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