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THE RELUCTANT GOURMET

Not the creamy layer

PHOTO: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR

THE CREAM ON THE CAKE It’s soya

Manfully shoving away tofu? Sneering at soya milk? Well, while you have been diving deep into creamy bakery products for some old school succour, did you know that you were actually vacuuming in vast amounts of soya?

And while you dreamt of bakers decanting thick puddles of cream from large pots brimming with rich milk, all they were really doing was taking a tetra-pack out of the freezer.

For, here’s the truth about cakes.

Almost all India’s mass produced cakes — whether they come from intimate, friendly bakeries or posh, la-di-dah Five Star hotels — are iced with a cream made of frozen soya. (Unless they’re from a roadside bakery. In which case they’re probably held up by dalda.) Since customer information isn’t a big priority here, nobody really tells you exactly what is in every food product you buy. Like the cake gel, that holds delicate sponge cakes together. Or the food colouring that laces almost everything from Chicken 65 to pista biscuits. In most other countries, soya cream is called ‘dessert topping’ or soy whip. Over here it’s in almost every cake, mousse and soufflé, masquerading as regular cream.

Indian bakers have been using soy for almost 12 years now. Rich’s Whip Topping, popular in more than 70 countries, is probably the best known. It comes in a 2 kg tetra pack, which can be popped into the freezer and used whenever it’s convenient.

Bakers simply whip this product till it reaches the consistency of a good whipped cream. The kind you use to top a warm, fragrant apple pie. Or a light-as-air chocolate soufflé. One difference between soya and cow cream is the fact that cow cream requires a serious arm muscle workout. You have to be brisk, untiring and determined. Not too determined though. In a bid to egg myself on, I once chanted ‘great arms, great arms’ as I attacked a bowl of cream, intended as an accompaniment to fudgy date pudding. I ended up with a rather mortified butter.

Though in hindsight, I was lucky to get even that far. Indian milk tends to be rather low in fat. So unless you have your own cow (which will do wonders for your personal life, I’m sure. Think of how impressed the girls/boys will be!), you’ll probably have to resign yourself to buying cartons of it from the supermarket. And the supermarket cartons really work better as pouring creams. Think fresh strawberries and cream.

About eight years ago, when housewives took to making elaborate ‘Continental’ desserts with unbridled enthusiasm, this soya whip was available for home use. So it found its way into everything from white chocolate raspberry gateaux to banana soy ice cream. Also pastas, curries and pies.

Honestly, fresh cow cream’s unbeatable, taste-wise. It’s got a lovely rounded flavour that soya just can’t replicate. Though soya cream feels very similar in texture, and once it’s sweetened tastes remarkably similar to regular cream, despite being mildly nutty, you do sense the vacuum after a couple of mouthfuls.

On the plus side, soya’s healthier and far more stable. You really don’t want to eat a cake laced with deadly dairy when it’s mass produced and left on a counter to wilt. And it’s great for vegans and the lactose-intolerant. Bakers find it cheaper, more stable, and hence safer.

Apparently, the whole soya movement began because Henry Ford didn’t like cows, according to an article on ‘Soy Pioneers’ by William Shurtleff and Akiko Aoyag. “In a sense, Henry Ford’s career can be seen as a plot to eradicate large domestic animals. Having rendered the horse obsolete with his automobile, he now set out to eliminate the cow. Ford’s unspoken antagonism toward cows struck a responsive chord in Bob Rich.” And then came Rich’s soya cream.

Well, it does beat housing a pet cow in the apartment. Even if the quirky mydairycow website promises that their apartment friendly cows are “about the size of a large Doberman, and make great watch cows too.”

shonali@thehindu.co.in

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