The Christmas spirit was well and truly on at Brookefields. There was Santa on a reindeer sleigh, a big Christmas tree, and a host of tasty attractions too.
Children and curious onlookers smiled at a Mickey Mouse image on a butter cake. The sporty lot spotted a cake shaped like a chess board — the squares were made of chocolate and vanilla. Casual shoppers and passersby couldn’t resist taking bites of an appetising pineapple-upside down cake decorated with cherries.
Eight such cakes were decorated by teams of bakers as part of ‘Santa’s Kitchen,’ a cake-dressing and dessert making competition. It was organised by Make A Difference (MAD) in association with online group Kovai Foodies.
Participants — regular home bakers, casual first-timers and professionals — came up with festive looking cakes and desserts. Some even had a message to convey. For instance, M.R. Krishna Kumar and P. Harish, catering science students at PSG CAS, made a cream cake shaped like the Christmas tree. They coloured it brown to make a point about environmental pollution. Next, they served their fruit salad on the peeled skin of a musk melon and watermelon.
The first place, however, went to the chess board cake and muffins made by catering students V. Tamilchelvan and Hari Prashanth of NGP College of Arts and Science. It had the vote of judge S. Ashok Kumar, executive chef at The Residency and a renowned pastry chef himself. The students said it was the first time they decorated cakes at a live event. They had just one day to prepare their cakes, and the chess cake turned out to be an apt idea, with the World Chess Championship having just concluded recently.
Older participants brought in their own flavour to the contest. Homemaker G. Sasi, 54, has taken part in television cookery shows before. She whipped up a pineapple cherry cake and corn flakes rolls. She came second. “A pineapple cake doesn’t require much decoration. People loved the fruity flavour and the homemade taste,” said Sasi.
Later, members of InTouch Fellowship sang carols, students of Vidhya Niketan MHSS put up a skit and students of PSG CAS performed a mime.
Ragul Ram, president, MAD Coimbatore said the aim was to spread joy and the event did just that, with people from various backgrounds taking part.
