It’s that time of the year again. Though Christmas is still a good two months away, for dessert chefs in the city, the prep for that traditional plum cake we all love...is just beginning. And French Loaf kicked off their cake mixing-do on Friday with 500 kilos of mixed fruits to plough through! And this was just to get a feel of things.
At the chain’s bakery unit in Guindy, chef Boopesh P gestures to the numerous plastic drums around us, “We have about 5,000 kilos of mixed fruits ready to be mixed.” There are plums, peaches, candied apples, pineapple, dates, orange peel...even a hundred kilos of mixed fruit jam! And this isn’t counting the spices – you may have heard of cinnamon sticks and bay leaves used in cake, but garam masala?
No kidding. Chef Boopesh smiles, “Yes garam masala too.” The final touch of this rather elaborate cocktail is 400 litres of alcohol. “It’s mostly rum, but we also include a small portion of brandy,” the chef tells us. With over 20 staff members diving in with gloved hands, it’s a riot of a party and the aroma is heady. This reporter even hears someone joke, “I don’t need one large after this, I think this itself is enough!” And given the massive quantities in the bakery, he wasn’t exaggerating. Chef Boopesh lets on, “Last year, we sold 5.5 tonnes of cake, so this year we’ve decided to double the amount to 10 tonnes.” In case math isn’t your strong suit, 10 tonnes works out to 20,000 half kilo plum cakes!