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For the perfect cakes-and-ale mix
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The city hotels are gearing up for the yummy plummy X'mas season by holding cake mixing ceremonies
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CHRISTMAS CAKES in November? Isn't it a little too early to think about a festival that is a good one and half months away? Actually no! Where Christmas Cakes are concerned the earlier you mix the dry fruits the better the flavour, and mixing dry fruits is a ceremony that Hotels in the city are not confining to their kitchen tables but celebrating with their guests. Just imagine mounds and mounds of brown dates, black raisins, red cherries, cashew nuts, topped with powdered cloves, cardamom, pepper and other secret spices- a heady scent fills the air- then the ceremony begins- bottles and bottles of liquor and wines are poured into the fruits and mixed till the dry fruits get fattened on the liquor and the heady vapours makes one a "debauchee of air."
At the fruit mixing ceremony at hotel Taj Malabar, 450 kilos of dry fruits were mixed and this would make 900 kilos of cake at Christmas time. Finally honey, marmalade and mixed fruit jam were mixed into the dry fruits before it was safely stored away. Says Pastry Chef Vikas of Taj Malabar, " The jam is added to bind the fruits and mellow the sharp flavour of the liquor." Some Hotels like The Casino Group of Hotels thought about Christmas almost in the beginning of the year-in the month of March they mixed the choicest dry fruits with liqueurs and honey to infuse it with different flavours. Chef Jose Varkey says "In fact we have already made our cakes and it is made to rest in de-humidified conditions for two to three months till the fruit flavour is imbibed by the body of the cake. This makes the cake more softer, more plumy and richer." And true to his word the Matured Plum Cake is rich in flavour. The cake is filled with raisins that are soft and filled with a fruity liqueur and when one bites into it the raisins just melt away. Their Cinnamon Cake ( a Christmas special) filled with the natural goodness of wild honey and caramelised sugar topped with cinnamon powder is delicate and perfectly blissful on your tongue.
What is really interesting about Christmas cakes is that every hotel, bakery and housewife has the same basic recipe but the way each of them handle the ingredients is what makes all the difference. Some puree part of the dry fruits, some add honey, some add cognac, some add fruit liqueurs, some add more spices, some add less, some preserve the dry fruits for a year, some bake early, some bake late- but they all add sugar and spice and all things nice to bake their cakes. And making the perfect cake is not only an art but also a "Divine Blessing" according to Chef Robin of Riviera Suites. The Riviera Suites had their cake mixing ceremony recently when they mixed part of the dry fruits preserved from last year to more dry fruits, and have been baking cakes ever since . Says the Assistant General Manager of Riviera Suites, Sreekanth Manikoth, "We have mixed 3500 kilos of dry fruits to make 7500 kilos of Christmas Cakes this year and we have to work three shifts a day to finish by Christmas time." And Chef Robin Mathew claims "We have a special Christmas cake this year and I have been working on this recipe for the past two years and I am sure we have a winner. In fact last year we had baked 3500 kilos of the Rich Fruit Plum Cake and we could not meet the demand, so we have doubled the quantity this time." And this one is a tested truth about the Riviera Rich Fruit plum cake- it wont leave no butter or oil on your hand that you need to rub into your hair each time you eat a piece of cake! Another interesting factor about the Riviera Cake is that the flavours are very subtle - they have blended it to perfection - no flavour stands out and numbs your taste buds to all other tastes. The Taj Residency besides the regular Christmas cakes and butter/ cream cakes will have the Yule Log for Christmas. The story of the Yule log is that on Christmas Eve a huge log was brought into the house by the master of the house and the family would gather around to say prayers, someone would then light the log, the cinders of the log were supposed to ward off the evil spirits. However in the sunnier climes we have to settle for a chocolate version of the log to ward off evil.
MINU ITTYIPE
MINU ITTYIPE
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