Tutti Frutti Buttermilk Cake - One-Bowl Buttermilk Christmas Cake Recipe

Learn how to make this easy one-bowl buttermilk cake with dry fruits or tutti frutti for Christmas. The cake is easy to customize and you can add your own additions like fruits, nuts, etc to make it your own this holiday season.

Tutti Frutti is one of those things that's so very Indian and I relate a lot to Christmas. My mom would make ice cream sundaes with lots of fresh fruits and tutti frutti sprinkled on top which was such a delicious treat. This tutti frutti cake is a total winner too for many reasons.

- You only need one bowl to whip it up
- You can make this cake easily with ingredients that are most likely lurking in your pantry
- You can customize it in many different ways
- It is not an eggless buttermilk cake, however, you can adapt it to make it eggless
- From start to finish, it takes about 40 mins so it's perfect to bake when you are expecting guests

In fact, I baked this tutti frutti cake with ingredients in my pantry during the last few days in Singapore. We were trying to meet all our friends to say good bye and I was mostly hosting people for tea since an entire meal was hard to cook up while you are decluttering and packing up 5 years worth of your stuff. I was slightly apprehensive to try a new recipe because if the cake went bust, I didn't have any back up. But it baked up beautifully with a lovely crumb and a soft and spongy interior. The book I adapted this from, Camilla Saulsbury's Piece of Cake, is a definite winner and highly recommended for easy, one-bowl cake recipes (thanks SJ!).

If you want to bake an eggless tutti frutti cake, use this eggless sponge cake as a base and throw in some tutti frutti. Or, you may want to try this chocolate truffle cake that's one-bowl too. Of course, you may be looking for a Christmas fruit cake or maybe an eggless fruit cake?

TUTTI FRUTTI BUTTERMILK CAKE RECIPE

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Serves 8-10

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup of plain flour (maida)
2/3 cup of sugar
1/2 tsp of baking powder
1/2 tsp of baking soda
1 egg
1/2 cup of buttermilk (see notes)
1/4 cup of butter, softened
1/2 tsp of vanilla extract
1/3 cup of tutti frutti
A pinch of salt

INSTRUCTIONS:

0. Set oven to 400F/200C for pre-heating. Grease an 8" pan with butter. I used a loaf pan and got thin long slices.

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.

2. To this, add the egg, vanilla, buttermilk, and butter.

3. Using an electric beater, beat this mixture on low speed for 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and beat again on medium speed for 1 more minute.

If your mixer only has one speed, that's ok. Just use that. Using an electric mixer will give you best results in this recipe than using a whisk and doing it by hand. The mixture needs good aeration so getting some machine into the process helps.

4. Pour batter into your prepared pan.

5. Sprinkle the tutti frutti or whatever fruits/nuts you are using, on top evenly.

6. Bake for 25-30 mins until the top turns golden brown and a skewer inserted into the cake comes out with moist crumbs.

Let the cake cool completely before slicing and serving. This tutti frutti came keeps in the refrigerator for 4 days, wrapped tightly in foil or cling wrap.

NOTES:
1. If you don't have buttermilk in hand, just use 1/4 cup thick curd mixed with 1/4 cup water. I have tried this and not seen significant difference in the texture of the cake
2. As mentioned, play around with the add-ons to this cake. I'd try chocolate chips, mixed fruit peels, frozen blueberries (as in the original recipe) etc
3. Use a electric beater to mix the batter for best results

For Tutti Frutti Christmas Cake recipe in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati, Marathi, etc, please use the Google Translate button in the sidebar.