With the festive season round the corner, Pune’s hotels and bakeries have cranked up their ovens and started baking Christmas cakes.
“We soak the fruits and nuts in rum for 10-15 days before Christmas, so it gets fermented and you get the aromatic flavour. From the first week of December, the chef starts baking the plum cakes. The cake ceremony was held on November 16, where around 30-35 staff and in-house guests were present to celebrate,” says Divya Prakash Jha, Food and Beverage Manager, Hotel Ramee Grand, Pune.
Afan Kazi, owner, Empire Bakery in Camp, says, “We have been in this business for 50 years. During the festive season, plum cakes, mawa cakes, and dry fruit cakes are in demand not just on Christmas but every day – that is our specialty. Our plum cakes have raisins and other dry fruits. We take pre-orders, the cake weighs 10 kg and it’s a three-tier cake.”
During Christmas, it is not just big bakeries taking centre stage – home bakers are also creating amazing cakes and treats. Shalini D’souza, a home baker from Hadapsar, says, “I haven’t noticed any particular trend till now this year, but last year hampers were in trend – adding two-three goodies, chocolate fudge, cookies, and rum balls… customers used to like it…”
Cake-mixing ceremonies are now not just limited to five-star hotels but regularly held in Pune cafes too. Joravar Sachdev, owner of 11 East Street Café, says, “We have been running this eatery for the last 17 years and we try to do something every year. This year we have chocolate mud cake, sticky toffee puddings, and plum cakes that sport rum-soaked raisins. We usually bake cakes from 200 gram to 1 kg and more. Also, we do take pre-orders.”
A cake ceremony was held at J W Marriott Hotel on Senapati Bapat Road last Sunday. On the occasion, an employee at the Hotel said, “Every year we do this cake ceremony, we soak the dry fruits and nuts in rum, and after one month we start the baking process. While baking the cake, we get the flavors of rum and nuts in the cake. We have our in-house guest at the ceremony and it’s a lovely feeling when everyone is around.”
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