BENGALURU: With Christmas just a month-and-a-half away, hotels and restaurants have started preparing X’mas cakes. Mixing sessions, which involve tossing together dried fruits and nuts with alcohol, are on in full swing, with themes and traditional recipes adding a hint of fun. Socialities in the city are busy with cake mixing events.
With a cowboy theme, the cake mixing at JW Marriott Hotel Bengaluru over the weekend, resembled a scene straight out of a Tex-Mex Hollywood blockbuster with props, photo-booths, a cart, a bull ride ring and people dressed in their cowboy/cowgirl best adding to the celebrations. Celebrity fitness instructor Wanitha Ashok, pointed out that this is the first theme-based cake mixing she has attended. “The arrangements were elaborate and turned out to be a fun session,” Ashok said.
According to Chef Mohammed Eliyaz, Chef De Cuisine, JW Marriott Hotel Bengaluru, this year’s theme of ‘Wild Wild West’ saw all the participants sport ‘cowboy’ and ‘cowgirl’ looks, which clicked among the participants. “In addition, we also had two separate cake mixing counters to engage both the adults and kids,” he said.
For Chef Saurabh Arora, City chef- Impresario Entertainment & Hospitality Pvt. Ltd, which hosted cake mixing at Smoke House Deli, the highlight of the cake-mixing ceremony was the preparation of the dried fruits and other ingredients that would go into making the traditional Christmas fruit-cake. “The special recipe concocted called for the inclusion of dried fruits, including cherries, plums, raisins, orange peels and other exotic dried fruits, special blend of Christmas spices, as well as honey, cream and fruit juices, in addition to other cake batter ingredients,” he said.
Away from central Bengaluru, guests including Mrs India, Shubha Sriram, teleartist Jeeva and Vivek Agnihotri, at Royal Orchid Resort & Convention Centre, Yelahanka, wore Christams caps and had fun getting the cake ready for X’mas.
In Rajajinagar, Sheraton Grand Bangalore Hotel at Brigade Gateway saw 80 people, including wine maker Abhay Kewadkar, in attendance. In total, 70 litres of alcohol, 160 kg of dry fruits and dry nuts were used and at the end, the total mix weighed at around 250kg. Come Christmas, and each attendee will be given a one-pound cake. Here too, in an attempt to make it inclusive, people of all age groups, including children, joined in.