The languorous chilly December nights are warming up to the spirit of Christmas. The flavour of the season is undoubtedly the sinful delights of plum and chocolate cakes.
To welcome the festive spirit, the big and small bakery units in the city are offering a veritable cake feast. You are spoilt for choice for every bakery has something special for Christmas.
And if you are counting those extra calories, just give up the thought, for there are too many wicked luscious temptations to yield to!
The shops have come up with a host of delights like plum puddings, yule logs, plum cakes, rum chocolate cakes, and mousse cakes and fruit baskets.Fresh Choice Super cake shop is gearing up for the season with thousands of cakes with yummy flavours garnished with nuts and dry fruits.
The heady scent of dry fruits soaked in wine, rum and brandy wafts out from the stores as you pass by. More than 20 different varieties of cakes are on sale at the outlets.
Hot favourites
While blackforest, pineapple, vanilla and chocolate truffle are the hot favourites, the shop also specialises in a variety of chocolate cakes like choco-nut, choco-crunch and choco-walnut cakes apart from the season's delight of plum cakes.
“Each outlet sells around 15 to 20 cakes, especially plum cakes, on an average during the weeks before Christmas and the figure doubles on Christmas day,” says the manager of Fresh Choice Super cake shop K. Sanjay.
Bakery stores like Bagels and FoodEx have also displayed a delectable range of cakes for the festive season.
You can relish the choicest flavours of cakes, pastries and puddings that will be on offer at the take-away counter of Sugar N Spice at the lobby of The Gateway Hotel from December 23 to January 2.The Park hotel will open its take-away counter from Sunday called ‘Santa's Chalet' located at the porch of the hotel showcasing its finest array of Christmas cakes.
Plum cake
When the plum cakes start to surface on bakery shelves one can tell that the Christmas season is near.
There can be a Christmas without snow but here can be no Christmas without plum cake.
The plum cake is made with the finest of raisins.
These raisins are mixed with honey, liquor, nutmeg, candied orange peel and crystallised ginger.
The fruit juices mix with the liquor and when it matures it forms a fruity liqueur. The `plum' dried fruits are added to the cake batter and are baked in the month of October, which is then allowed to mellow further for the Christmas season. This plum cake if stored properly will keep for 2-3 months.
It originated as a 'porridge', called ‘frumenty' and was eaten as a fasting dish in preparation for Christmas.
Later, it evolved into a plum pudding. During the Puritan reign in England, plum pudding was outlawed as “sinfully rich,” and described its rich ingredients as ‘unfit for god fearing people.'
It was George I who having tasted and enjoyed the plum pudding re-established it as part of the Christmas feast.
When the British came to India this was further modified using locally available ingredients and was baked like a cake.
The lesser-known French 'Yule log' is also associated with the festive season. It is log shaped with a chocolate butter cream icing made to resemble a bark.
This was inspired by the real logs, which are used to burn the hearth throughout Christmas.
