
Tutti Frutti 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 Christmas cake is a total winner too for many reasons.
– You only need one bowl to whip up this cake
– It can made easily with ingredients that are most likely lurking in your pantry already
– You can customise it in many different ways
– It is not an eggless buttermilk cake, however, you can adapt it to make it eggless (replace egg with flaxseed meal, yogurt, etc)
– 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?
- 1 cup of plain flour (maida)
- ⅔ cup of sugar
- ½ tsp of baking powder
- ½ tsp of baking soda
- 1 egg
- ½ cup of buttermilk (see notes)
- ¼ cup of butter, softened
- ½ tsp of vanilla extract
- ⅓ cup of tutti frutti
- A pinch of salt
- Set oven to 400F/200C for pre-heating. Grease an 8" pan with butter.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.
- To this, add the egg, vanilla, buttermilk, and butter.
- 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.
- Pour batter into your prepared pan.
- Sprinkle the tutti frutti or whatever fruits/nuts you are using, on top evenly.
- 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.
Step by Step 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.
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. You can also use 1/2 cup milk + 1 tsp vinegar as a substitute for buttermilk in cakes
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.
Can I use wheat flour instead maida
yes, texture of cake will differ accordingly
Can I use oil instead of butter
no it won’t turn out the same in this recipe
Hi
Your cake looks yummy and I want to try. Please let me know 1/4 cup of butter is equivalent to how many grams.
Thank you
55 grams. You can easily Google for this information
Hi, Can u tell me 1 cup is equal to how much grams and also in ml ?
1 cup = 240ml
Hey, I m looking a egg-less recipe for this cake, This looks so yum to me. Can u tell me what can i substitute for egg here?
you can try to replace flax seed powder + water mixture for egg (1 egg = 3 tbsp powdered flax seed mixed with 1 tbsp warm water). I haven’t tried this myself though. Alternately, you can use this eggless sponge cake recipe as base and add the tutti frutti to it.
Hi Nags.. I tried dis recipe wid cooker yday n it turned out pretty well.. Like d insides wr soft n airy.. Bt d base n sides (d brown ones) wr kinda chewy.. Didnt know wgat d fault was.. N it was a lil sweet fr me.. Odrwise my family loved it.. N thnx a ton.. Ur measures wr pukka 👌🏻👍🏻
Can i use d exact proportion above and make it in pressure cooker?
Hello Rj, I haven’t tried that but you can surely give it a shot using my pressure cooker cake method and this recipe. Please let me know how it turns out.
Looks yummy.
thank you sajani