What’s Christmas without a plum cake? We look at some of the best available in the city
It all started as a search for the Perfect Plum Cake. A quest that led to a larger question: Is there any such thing as a ‘perfect plum cake’? Across Delhi bakeries, there are many versions of the Christmas cake — from the 100-rupee ones with glazed cherries to those that cost well beyond Rs 1,000. The most common are found wrapped in thin plastic on bakery counters across the city. But those aren’t the ones we’re looking for.
The first stop — and the most predictable one — is Wenger’s, a name which has become synonymous with patties, pastries and cakes in the city. The bakery, which was set up in 1926, offers its famous plum cake for Rs 580 per kg. Mrs Kaur’s, which has outlets across the city, is another place to visit for the cake which can be picked off the shelf for Rs 350 if it’s a half-kg you want. “But for a one-kg plum cake, that costs Rs 600, you need to place an order,” the man at the counter tells us. Every five-star hotel bakery in town also has a stock of plum cakes this time of the year.
But what if you’re looking for a truly personalised cake? For that, try out the treats offered by pastry chef and food consultant Kishi Arora, who runs an online store — www.foodaholics.in — and promises to deliver anywhere in Delhi. Her speciality is that no two of her cakes are alike. “I baked my very first plum cake while training at the culinary school of America and soon realised that everyone has their own version of the plum cake,” she says. Her own do not include the regular flour, and are instead made from almond flour. The ingredients also vary from cake to cake — lavender honey, cranberry, current, orange, darker, bigger raisins…
Arora also does not believe in soaking raisins in liquor weeks in advance — the way it’s done traditionally. Instead she simply boils them in her chosen drink — Tia Maria, peach schnapps or anything else that takes her, or the customer’s fancy. Among the customers are those living on the faraway shores who place an order online for their families and friends living in Delhi. A 500 to 600 gm plum cake from Arora’s bakery ‘workshop’ — which is spread across two storeys on her house — costs around Rs 1,000. For a cake that weighs 5 kg and more, an order has to be placed two days in advance, else she can whip up a plum cake if she’s given a 24-hour notice.
Among the biggest plum cakes that she’s done to far is a 10-kg one for a Christmas party.
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For those who want to keep a strict check on every little ingredient that goes into their cake is the Sharda Pastry shop in Hauz Khas. Give them ingredients like dry fruits soaked in rum and sugar and they will bake a cake according to how you want yours to be. It’s not easy to get the baker to talk to us and tell us how and when the process started. It’s Christmas season and there are simply too many plum cakes to bake. But a little prodding and he tells us that his clients include both Indians and expats. “We sell over a hundred cakes during the Christmas week,” he says.
This sure is a plum season for cakes!