Tutti Frutti Cake

This festive season is never complete without a slice of Tutti Fruitti cake or a rich Fruit cake.

Tutti frutti is basically an Italian confection made with sliced fruit which has been candied or dried to preserve it. In Italian, “tutti frutti” means “all fruit, where a varied fruits like pineapple, papaya, mango, apricot, and grapefruit are used.
All of the fruits are diced fairly small and often brightly colored with various dyes to make it more visually appealing.

As far as I can remember, in my childhood days, there were some great bakeries in New Market like The Jewish confectioner "Nahoum's" and Imperial Cake shop.

Though curently there are several cake & bake shops in Kolkata, I still reminisce the drooling fruit cake, plum cake and rum balls of Nahoum's and it was a must to have them during the Christmas and New Year's time.

Here is the recipe of preparing a simple and easy Tutti Frutti Cake at home.

Ingredients:

• Refined Flour / Maida: 250 gms
• Eggs: 5
• Baking powder: 2 ½ tsp
• Sugar, powdered: 250 gms
• White butter: 250 gms
• Tutti frutti, Raisins and Cashew Nuts (chopped): 1 cup
• Vanilla essence: 2 tsp
  

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 390 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease a 8" round baking cake tin with butter and dust it evenly with a little flour.
2. Sift the flour and baking powder together, sieve thrice and keep aside.
3. In a bowl, add butter and powdered sugar and cream them together till light and fluffy.
4. Add one egg at a time and beat till well combined. Add vanilla essence.
5. Add the flour gradually and fold to form a smooth cake mixture. (Do not over beat and combine the flour in one direction only).
6. Sprinkle some flour over the tutti frutti to coat them, add them to the batter and fold gently into the batter. (Keep a little tutti frutti, raisins and chopped cashew aside to sprinkle on top).
7. Spread batter evenly in the greased baking tin and sprinkle the remaining tutti frutti on the top.
8. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 390 degrees F (200 degrees C) for 30-45 minutes or until done. (Test by pricking the cake with a tooth pick and if it comes out clean then the cake is done).
9. Place on a wire rack to cool for 15 mins.
10. Slice and treat yourself or your guests with tea / coffee.