Pineapple Tooti-Frooti Cake

As I always say I do not have much expertise in baking cakes. Wanted to bake some teacakes for a family get together and I was wondering what to bake. Few days back, I had received 3 mini loaf pans ( one my mother kept with her 🙂 ) as a gift from my brother and since then had been waiting for an occasion to use it. So here is a simple soft n spongy pineapple flavoured eggless cake with lots of tootifrooti in every bite. It’s very moist and yummy. You can omit butter and use only oil, but according to me unfrosted cakes taste better with atleast some butter in it. You can replace the tootifrooti with dehydrated fruits like apples or guavas or berries.

Ingredients:

• All purpose flour 125 gm (1 cup)
• Sugar 75-80 gm
• Salt a pinch
• Pineapple essence 1/4-1/2 tsp
• Baking powder 1/4 tsp
• Baking soda 1/2 tsp
• Tooti frooti 1/4 cup
• Vinegar 2 tsp
• Milk 1/2 cup (120 ml)
• Butter plus oil 1/4 cup (60 ml)

Method:

• Preheat the oven at 175-180 degree celsius for atleast 10 minutes.
• Grease a six inch round cake tin or 2 small mini loaf pans with butter and dust it with flour and keep it ready.
• Powder the sugar till it is fine.
• Sieve the flour, salt, sugar, baking powder and baking soda 2-3 times. Dust the tooti frooti with a spoonful of flour and keep aside.
• Add the vinegar to the milk and keep aside for 3-4 minutes. Buttermilk will be ready in 5 minutes.
• Lightly melt the butter and measure the butter and oil till it is 1/4 th of a cup. You can take half quantity butter and half oil.
• Mix the buttermilk with the oil till it is nicely mixed and add the essence to it.
• Gently add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and fold it. Add the tooti frooti and mix gently. Do not over mix.
• Pour the batter into the cake tin and tap it on the counter to remove the air bubbles.
• Bake the cake for 20-25 minutes or till the top is golden in colour or a toothpick inserted at the centre comes out clean.
• Remove from the oven and cool the cake in the tin for 3-4 minutes.
• Slowly invert the cake onto a cooling rack and cool well.
• Slice and serve it fresh or store in air tight containers after the cake is fully cooled.

Notes:

• Pineapple essence can be replaced by vanilla extract or any other fruit essence.
• You can add cut dry fruits of or any other dehydrated fruits in place of tooti frooti.
• Dusting the tooti frooti with flour ensures that it doesn’t sink to the bottom of the cake.
• I have used less sugar because my family prefers it that way and also tooti frooti is very sweet. You can increase the sugar to 1/2 cup i.e. 100 gm.
• Store the cake in air tight containers or cling wrap it firmly only after it is fully cooled. Or else the top of the cake will get sticky.
• Also slice the cake carefully with a sharp serrated knife as the cake is too soft and might crumble.
• You can use granulated sugar too in place of powdered sugar.
• You can avoid the butter and use 1/4 cup oil. But I prefer it with some butter in it.
• Any flavourless oil can be used. I use Hudson canola oil. Do not use olive oil or any strong flavoured oil.
• I have made 2 mini loaves with the above measurement. Each loaf yields small sized 8-10 pieces.