Print
Gumdrop Cake - a Newfoundland Holiday or Birthday Favourite!
Gumdrop Cake - a dense buttery pound cake packed with brilliantly colored morsels of gumdrop candy. It's very popular during the Holidays or as a birthday cake here in Newfoundland
Prep Time 45 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour 30 minutes
Total Time 2 hours 15 minutes
Servings 32 Servings (about a 4 pound cake)
Calories 235 kcal
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups butter
- 2 cups sugar
- 3 eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp finely minced lemon zest optional
- 3 cups flour
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- 3/4 cup undiluted evaporated milk
- 2 1/2 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 loaf pans lightly greased and lined with parchment paper. Bake at 300 degrees F for 1 to 1 3/4 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.
Recipe 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.