Tutti Frutti Cake

 I had got about 4 huge packets of tutti frutti from the Indian grocery store during Christmas. I used only 2 of those packets to make the Christmas Cake. 1 packet was given to a friend. So, I had 1 whole packet lying in my freezer. I had to make use of it before next Christmas. So, made this tutti frutti cake when a friend came visiting for some chai (tea) and cake.

What is Tutti Frutti??? I got a nice explanation from Wikipedia (Tutti Frutti)

"Tutti frutti (from Italian "all fruits", also hyphenated tutti-frutti) is a colorful confection containing various chopped and usually candied fruits, or an artificially created flavouring simulating the combined flavour of many different fruits. It is often used for making a tutti frutti ice cream flavor.

Fruits used for tutti-frutti ice cream include cherries, raisins, and pineapple, often augmented with nuts.[1] In the Netherlands, tutti-frutti (also "tutti frutti," "tuttifrutti") is a compote of dried fruits, served as a dessert[2][3] or a side dish to a meat course.[4][5] In Belgium, tutti-frutti is often seen as a dessert.[6] Typically, it contains a combination of raisins, currants, apricots, prunes, dates, and figs.

In the United States, tutti-frutti can also refer to fruits soaked in brandy or other spirits, or even to fruit fermented in a liquid containing sugar and yeast.[7]

In India, tutti-frutti refers to candied raw papaya. These are always small cubical pieces often brightly colored. The most common color being red, tutti-frutti are also available in rich green and yellow colors. These are used in various bakery products including cakes, milk-breads, cookies, dilkhush and buns. Tutti-frutti is also used in cold deserts as toppings for the ice-creams and sundaes. They are also used in sweet paans and sangeet (paper-masala)"

Ingredients

3 eggs at room temperature

1 cup milk

1/3 cup butter

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 cups All Purpose Flour (APF)

1 cup sugar

1 cup tutti frutti (dust it with 1 TBS APF)

1 tsp vanilla essence

1/4 tsp salt

Method

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a cake pan - I used a bundt pan. But, you could use a 9X13 (inch) baking pan. Or you could even get 20 to 24 cupcakes out of it.
Sieve the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and keep it aside.
In a mixing bowl - beat the eggs till they are nice and fluffy. Add the sugar and mix well till it gets dissolved. Add the melted butter (make sure it is not hot) and milk and vanilla essence and mix well for about 5 minutes.
Add the flour mixture and fold it in using a ladle. Mix it well till no lumps can be seen. Be careful not to overmix. Fold in the tutti frutti.
Pour it into the pan and bake for 30 to 40 minutes. After 30 minutes check to see the doneness using a toothpick. Insert the toothpick in the middle of the cake and remove - if its clean, its done - else let it bake for another 5 minutes before checking.
For cupcakes the baking time will be in between 8 to 12 minutes.
Remove onto a cooling rack and cut after its cooled down.