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Heralding the X’mas season
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It’s not yet Christmas, but all the hotels and restaurants have brought alive the festive spirit through one of the most celebrated traditions - the cake mixing ceremony
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Photo: C.V. Subrahmanyam
Festive spirit Staff of The Park hotel celebrating the cake mixing ceremony
The heady smell of spirits is so intoxicating that it almost overpowers your senses. Rich raisins soaked in wine and rum, the cherries, lots of good spirits, choicest of minced fruit and the headiest of aromatic spices – all this herald in the
season of Christmas. The vapours wafting around the bakery during the session can keep you high for the rest of the festive season.
It’s not yet Christmas, but all the hotels and restaurants have brought alive the festive spirit through one of the most celebrated traditions - the cake mixing ceremony. Days ahead of the season, the cake mixing ceremony begins.
Dry fruits and nuts are soaked in wine and grape juice, mixed thoroughly and kept for maturation for a few weeks.
Welcoming the Christmas season, The Park hotel organised the cake mixing ceremony recently. More than 40 pairs of gloved hands poured in all the liquor, love and laughter preparing the mix for Christmas cakes. Bottle-corks went pop as executive chef Srinath Sambandan along with the hotel staff and guests wielded his magic on the invigorating mixture days before Christmas.
And guess what the aromatic mixture contained? Tutti-frutti, black currants, dates, apricots, figs, cherries and walnuts along with a whiff of the choicest spices such as cardamom, cinnamon and cloves.
Grand assortment
The laughter and a sense a sense of camaraderie prevailed everywhere as people took turns to mix bottles of wine, whisky, rum, brandy and a large assortment of dried fruits. Freshly ground spices like nutmeg, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and mace were added and the mixture was tossed till all the fruits and nuts were well coated. After kneading, the mixture was emptied into large vat like containers and stored away till just a couple of days before Christmas, with occasional stirring, to ensure the nuts soak till they are swollen.
The same mixture goes into the preparations of plum puddings too. Topped with crispy caramel, it makes a lip-smacking dessert for any occasion, not just Christmas.
The laughter and joy also spilled over to other parts of the city as hotels like Taj Residency and Spencer’s hypermarket too celebrated the cake mixing ceremony with great fervour. While the hotels are gearing up with their special menu for Christmas, Spencer’s will have 16 varieties of cakes at the bakery counter.
Old tradition
“This is an age old tradition that dates back to the 17th century in the Europe where the cake mixing ceremony marked the arrival of the harvest season,” says Sambandan.
Originally a family affair, it is for many years celebrated within organisations to spread camaraderie and goodwill.
Today, hotels use the ceremony to welcome the season.
NIVEDITA GANGULY
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Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Mangalore
Puducherry
Tiruchirapalli
Thiruvananthapuram
Vijayawada
Visakhapatnam
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