Eggless Tutti Frutti [Vanilla] Cake

The thrill of doing a month long A- Z Themed Blogging Marathon hasn’t died down! It is now time to move on to the next edition. This week I have chosen Eggless bakes. It was so easy to decide upon this theme actually. I had around 4 eggless bakes in the drafts ,two of which I wanted to post for the previous edition but later switched over to some rare dishes with herbs.So, this tutti frutti cake was kinda ‘pushed back’ when I came up with this Thooduvalai rasam recipe.

For the baking theme , Srivalli has asked us to use an egg replacer. Since all my bakes are eggless, I use different replacer’s like flax seed meal/ pureed fruits , commercial egg replacers, yogurt etc. For this recipe I have used Curd / yogurt….

When we are in search of something you never find it.When you are looking for something else, you find what you were looking for earlier! It’s the philosophy of life , right?Before you can think I have gone philosophical , let me tell you that I neither have the experience nor is this the place to talk about the philosophy but I understood the meaning of that sentence  by means of a simple tutti – frutti!!!

There was a time when I went searching for this tutti fruti. We were to make Kashmiri Modur pulao for an Indian Cooking Challenge and I could not find it. You won’t believe the number of shops I went to in search of this one ingredient! Even on the day it was supposed to be posted I went in search of this in the super hot summer sun and still couldn’t find it and made the dish with cherries instead.

This ingredient, a simple yet colorful confection of fruits[mainly made from papaya around here] was so elusive. I stopped the search and moved on….

One fine day when I went looking for cocoa powder, what should I see!!! Rows and rows of colorful tutti-frutti!! I was so happy that I picked up so many packets like they would disappear from the face of the earth if I left them on the shel!And the cost of a pack-just INR 8 for 100 grams!!! This had eluded me for so many months and finally I got it for such a  price!

And I forgot all about the cocoa powder I needed for a chocolate cake I had to post, but I will save that story for another day….

So with my huge batch of tutti frutti I have been baking and cooking and that is what I have used in this cake too…..

I used:
Adapted from :The Chef and Her Kitchen

All purpose flour – 1 1/2 cups + extra to dust the tutti frutti
Tutti frutti – 1/2 cup + extra for topping
Curd, thick and fresh -1 cup
Sugar – 3/4 cup[Measure and then powder]
Oil- 1/2 cup
Baking soda-1/2 teaspoon
Baking Powder- 1 1/4 teaspoon
Vanilla essence- 2 teaspoons
Salt- a large pinch

A few teaspoons of milk to brush the cake

1. Prepare the cake tin .Grease and dust it with a little flour or line it an keep it ready.
2. In a bowl put in a few teaspoons of flour and the tutti frutti and toss it so that the tutti frutti is coated well with the flour. This is done so that the fruit does not sink to the bottom while baking.
3. Sieve the flour a couple of times and keep aside.
4. In a bowl take the curd and beat well smooth.
5. Add the sugar and mix well.
6. Put in the baking powder and baking soda and mix well.Set aside for a few minutes. It will become frothy and increase in volume and will be bubbling up a bit.
7. Add the essence,oil and then the flour in small batches. Take care while mixing as we do not want to lose the air in the mixture.Do not beat or whisk vigorously. We will now have a mixture of dropping consistency.
8. Add the flour coated tutti frutti and mix gently and pour into the prepared tin. Top it with more tutti frutti.
9. Bake in a pre heated oven at 200 C for 40 minutes or till a tooth prick comes out clean. It is better to keep an eye on the oven from 30 minutes as the baking time will vary.
10. Brush the cake with a little milk and bake for another 2 minutes for a shiny top on the cake.
11. Once done , remove from oven and take the cake out of the tin.
12. Let it cool completely before cutting.

Note:

• The cake is very soft and has the right amount of sweetness. Add more sugar if you have a sweet tooth….
• Be sure to cool the cake completely else they will crumble while slicing….

Take a look at the Blogging Marathon page to check out what my friends are cooking in the 33rd edition of this event….



Sending this to Srivalli’s Kid’s Delight Event – Kid’s delight Party