BENGALURU: For the last 15-odd years, home baker Michelle Gafoor wakes up around 4 am every morning in December to start her prep for plum cakes. She’s known for her Christmas cakes, and friends, family and new customers alike look forward to the layered creation every year. “I can’t really explain what my favourite part about baking plum cakes every year is but it’s so joyful and definitely puts me in the Christmas mood. I love that I wake up before everyone in the mornings, have my prep ready before 10 am and start baking, wrap up everything by 9 pm, go to sleep and repeat the process all over again,” says Gafoor, who was in the middle of the prep when we connected with her.
Gafoor began the process back in July by soaking the fruits in alcohol. “I took them out by December 1 and I’ve been baking something or the other every single day since. I’m expecting to bake around 300 kg of plum cakes this year,” she exclaims, adding with a chuckle, “I just have to make sure that my family doesn’t distract me when I’m at work so I have enough batter for each of my orders.”
While there are commercial bakers who are known for selling plum cakes, home bakers in the city are quite in demand too. Food blogger Jyothi Varne has a Christmas bake sale every year and will have one this year too. “This time will be my fourth year of doing this and I follow a recipe that’s been passed onto me for generations,” explains Varne, who keeps the leftover soaked dry fruits for next year and mixes it to the new batch.
Varne makes her own spice mix which gives the aromatic flavours to the plum cake. “I have clients who ask for matured plum cake which is cake that’s soaked in more rum once baked and kept to mature for a week or two,” says the baker, who will start sending out her orders between December 21 and 29.
“At home, we grew up loving the Nilgiris and Thom’s Bakery plum cakes, but the recipe that I use now is a combination of what my mother learnt from a neighbour who has been making it for generations and also the diploma courses I took for baking,” says Varne.
Giving plum cakes a twist is home baker Sabitha S who not only uses the regular dried fruits but also adds cranberry, black and golden raisins, cashew, almonds and more.
“I actually sell it as a fruit cake since it’s loaded with fruits and it’s also less potent as I soak them only for a month or so before baking. I also cook the soaked fruits in rum and orange juice before using it in my batter,” explains Sabitha.
Available throughout Christmas and New Year, Sabitha is able to churn out bulk orders thanks to an industrial oven at home. “The recipe that I use is a combination of my mother’s and aunt’s with my own twist to it. There’s a sense of pleasure and satisfaction that baking gives me,” she says.
TO ORDER
Michelle Gafoor
98450 92630
Jyoti Varne
99161 33077
Sabitha S
97428 21020