Gumdrop Cake. A Holiday or Birthday Favourite!
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Gumdrop Cake. A dense buttery pound cake packed with brilliantly coloured morsels of gumdrop candy. It's very popular during the Holidays or as a birthday cake here in Newfoundland.
Gumdrop Cake is one of those things that I remember from childhood as does Spouse; it's one of her favourites. Back then it was sometimes made as a birthday cake for kids and adults alike.
I mean, a cake that's chock full of candy... and with frosting! What kid wouldn't love that?
It is a very similar recipe to the ever popular Newfoundland Cherry Cake which is made in practically every household in the province during the Christmas season. The poundcake-like texture of the cherry cake is tweaked to be just a little more dense.
The purpose is in order to support the heaps of brilliantly coloured little gumdrops scattered throughout the cake. All the while still maintaining it's rich buttery flavour.
Be sure to read the notes on the gumdrops that are provided with the recipe. This ensure the best success in baking this cake.
A gift giving favourite.
This a a perfect gift giving cake too, because the recipe can be easily divided between 2 small loaf pans.
If you double the recipe you can get 4 perfect little cakes to wrap in some colourfully seasonal cellophane wrap and tie with a bright ribbon.
It's just the thing to bring as a hostess gift to Holiday parties or to hand out to the neighbours, especially those with small children.
I always get questions about the gumdrops for this recipe. Here in Canada, these are carried by Bulk Barn, but I have been told sometimes only seasonally.
If you can't find them try cutting up larger gumdrops instead. Very soft gumdrops are not suitable though. Be sure to use the firmest ones you can find.
For other cakes popular in Newfoundland during the Holidays, including traditional dark and light fruitcakes as well as a few with modern twists, check out our Collection of Newfoundland Christmas Cake Recipes.
2020 Update, finding the right gumdrop candies.
Over the years, I have received a great many questions about where to buy the baking gums called for in this recipe. I admit, they are increasingly hard to source.
Here in Canada, Bulk Barn is still carrying them, but I'm told that is probably just seasonally. Finding them for online purchase is also increasingly difficult.
This year I decided to experiment with a few commonly available jujubes/gumdrops to test the results (Are they called jujubes in the US?)
Using different gumdrops.
Keeping to my own advice, I set out to these three different types. The first was Walmart's "Great Value" brand & the second was Canadian brand, Ganong jujubes.
Just for fun, I also tested Walmart's store brand of red berry candies. These are firmer than the actual Maynard's brand of Swedish berries candy. Spouse loves those, so it was worth a try too.
I should note that none of these brand were very large candies. For the most part, all I had to do was cut them in half, to about the size of my thumbnail.
I'm happy to report that all 3 experiments were a success! All of them maintained their shape after baking and none of them melted into the cake. Success!
So, my original advice as posted in the notes for the recipe, still stands. Stick with the firmest gumdrops and you should have success too.
Looking for more Holiday baking inspiration?
Here's our collection of some of the most popular Holiday baking ideas from the past 14 years on Rock Recipe.
Originally published December 2015. Updated December 2020.
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Gumdrop Cake. A Newfoundland Holiday or Birthday Favourite!
Gumdrop Cake. A dense buttery pound cake packed with brilliantly coloured morsels of gumdrop candy. It's very popular during the Holidays or as a birthday cake here in Newfoundland
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups butter
- 2 cups sugar
- 3 eggs
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon finely minced lemon zest, optional
- 3 cups flour
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¾ cup undiluted evaporated milk
- 2 ½ cups baking gums + an additional ¼ cup flour
Instructions
- Cream together the butter and sugar well.
- Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition until light and fluffy.
- Beat in the vanilla and lemon zest.
- Sift together the flour and baking powder.
- Fold dry ingredients into the creamed mixture alternately with the evaporated milk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. As a general rule, I add the dry ingredients in 3 portions and the milk in 2 portions.
- Fold in the baking gums that have been tossed at the last minute in the ¼ cup flour.
- Bake in greased and floured bundt pan or in a spring form pan, tube pan, or two 9x5 inch loaf pans lightly greased and lined with parchment paper.
Baking the cake.
- Bake at 300 degrees F for 1 to 1 ¾ hours depending upon the size of your pan. Small loaf pans may be done just under an hour so test them after 50 minutes. My bundt pan cake took the full hour and 45 minutes in my oven
- Baking times vary greatly on this recipe so rely on the toothpick test to ensure that it is properly baked. When a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, its done. Be careful not to go past this stage or the cake will be dry.
- Let the cake cool in the pan/s for 10 minutes before turning it out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
I used the smallest baking gums that I could find in this cake and they worked well. Baking gums are made to withstand the heat of baking. If using larger gumdrops, you will want to cut them in small pieces about the size of cutting a cherry into quarters. Larger gumdrops may fall to the bottom and ruin the cake. Be careful not to use gumdrops that are too soft either. They should spring back nicely when you squeeze them between your fingers. If you can crush them completely between your thumb and forefinger they are probably too soft to use and will probably melt through the cake batter.
Nutrition Information
Yield
32Serving Size
1/32 of cakeAmount Per Serving Calories 250Total Fat 10gSaturated Fat 6gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 3gCholesterol 42mgSodium 105mgCarbohydrates 40gFiber 1gSugar 25gProtein 2g
The nutritional information provided is automatically calculated by third party software and is meant as a guideline only. Exact accuracy is not guaranteed. For recipes where all ingredients may not be used entirely, such as those with coatings on meats, or with sauces or dressings for example, calorie & nutritional values per serving will likely be somewhat lower than indicated.
hi there Barry, I love your recipies and every one I tried baked just beautiful tks for all the wonderful recipies
Hi Barry,
I use your cherry cake recipe every year. It's the best and always comes out perfect.
I grew up in Nfld and fondly remember Gumdrop Cake. I wanted to try this myself...do I have to use baking gums? Can I use candy from the grocery store?
What kind of candy could I use? I live in the US, so I was thinking of using DOTS, but I am familiar with Canadian brands so I can compare with those in the US.
Got Rock Recipes 2 as a gift...LOVE it.
Thanks,
Tina
I always use baking gums because of their small size. As the recipe states, you can use practically any gumdrops except the super soft ones. they may melt into the cake. chewier candy like jujubes are probably better. cut in about quarters. One reader swears by Ganong gumdrops too.
What about using black gum drops? My fav but have heard that they will make the batter blackish?
Was wondering if l can bake the gumdrop cake in a loaf pan,will make the cherry loaf at the same time, l can use up the canned milk. Will rate later ,all reviews are good, that is what l look at before l use the recipe, thanks
I will make this for whatever holiday comes along.
cherry cake for George Washington's Birthday? no excuses needed!!!! so good!
I have made marmalade many times but this looks so good will try it next week.'
enjoyed your book, pictures are mouthwatering!
Hi Aunt Lorraine. I'd make cherry cake any day of the week myself. Love it. I think you'll like the touch of vanilla in the marmalade. I love that too. Glad you enjoyed my book. Do you have the first one or the second one?
This gumdrop cake is amazing!!! My mom used to make a gumdrop loaf.... so I was looking for a similar recipe when I found yours. I'm so glad I did!! I am from NL and now living in the US.I have not found any candy that compares to the baking gums in Canada.... so my mom now brings me the baking gums from NL when she visits, as it has become a family favorite for my kiddos. Thanks so much for sharing!!!! If anyone has found a comparable US candy, I would love to know which one!!
If I double the recipe and make four small loaf pans,how long do I need to bake for
Less time for sure but it depends on the size of the pans. Check them early and rely on the toothpick test to know when they are done.
Barry
Can you add Cherries into this gumdrop cake recipe ?
Do you mean substitute? yes
Thanks for the recipe, I made it last night in 6 mini loaf pans and it turned out looking beautiful and tasting delicious. I'm hoping to be able to make it for Christmas gifts this year. I have a couple of questions for you if you'd be so kind to help. I'm wondering if there is any way to fold the dry ingredients into the creamed butter with electric beaters or a stand mixer. I have arthritis and found that the batter became so stiff that I had great difficulty trying to fold the flour in.
We cut one mini loaf and found it tasted wonderful. Unfortunately it didn't slice very easily - the cake itself was very light and crumbled a fair bit, and crumbled a whole lot any time the knife hit a gumdrop. I did use small baking gumdrops but am wondering if the cake would slice more easily with softer gumdrops? Or do you think I did something wrong to make the cake turn out light, fluffy, and crumbly? Thanks for any help you can offer.
A stand mixer with paddle attachment should be ok on lowest speed but be careful not to over mix. Some people prefer to cut larger softer gumdrops into pieces for this cake. I expect your crumbling may just be because it was so fresh.
I just can’t bring up the recipie,! How can I get it
How can you comment on a recipe post that you can't access? Am I missing something here?
Thanks so much for your reply. You were correct, the loaf crumbled because it was so fresh. I have so far made 26 mini loaves, and plan to make 24 more by Christmas! I have been getting my partner to help with the mixing, so haven't needed to get a stand mixer. Thanks for the wonderful recipe 🙂
Merry Christmas!
Andrew
I am using two regular size loaf pans, will I bake for 1 hour 45?
No, they will like be done far sooner. Let the toothpick test be the guide.
While I didn't make this cake yet, I gave this recipe five stars anyway, since it looks like a winner! Plus it reminds me of an elderly neighbor from Newfoundland, Madge Touhy I had, lol! I'm thinking of making it this Christmas and passing out different types of "Christmas Bundt Cakes" on cellophane-wrapped plates to the neighbors! I also want to make a fruitcake, cranberry-orange cake, an apple-spice cake and some type of chocolate-mint cake (all Bundt's). I figure it's much less time-consuming than Christmas cookies and a cute "break from tradition". I'll probably do some little powdered snowball cookies in the center for interest. Except I might do 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract and 1/2 tsp almond extract (since it's stronger). I'll also be frosting it with a rich vanilla buttercream frosting, like my old friend did her Bundt cakes. Anyways, this will be saved to my "Christmas Cakes" folder under Pinterest!
Hi Barry,
How do you store your gumdrop cake?
I made mine last week. It turned out tasting like my nan's...so many great memories. It is a tad dry so I'm wondering if it's because I overmixed or is it the way I'm storing it?
For Cakes Like this I generally cut them in quarters, wrap in several layers of plastic wrap and freeze. That way the whole cake doesn't need to be out at once and you can enjoy it as you need it. It definitely should be tightly wrapped to store when not frozen as well.
I made this gumdrop cake. Turned out delicious. However I have one issue. I used 2 loaf pans. And less time. But my loaf came out crusty. Soft in middle. But outer crust was hard. Is it something I did. How can I correct it so it doesn’t happen again
If Your oven is not running hot, then definitely the type of pans. I only use aluminum bakeware for cakes. Much better heat regulation. Check them earlier next time too, I'd suggest.
Had to bake gum drop cakes double the time-when testing they were not cooked. Why?
Depends on your oven, pan size and type. That is a long time though. First time someone has mentioned such an issue.
I will be making your gum drop cake recipe but using an eight cavity loaf pan. How long to bake?
Thanks