With the cheer and joy of Christmas celebrations only a month away, bakers in the city are gearing up to cater to the Xmas cake demand. What is Xmas without the traditional cake?, they ask.
Leading bakeries in the city have already started mixing the ingredients and prepping them for the large quantity of cakes to be baked for the season. Many are rolling out tweaked versions of the conventional plum cake offering customers a little bit of variety.
The traditional plum cakes will be up for sale as always. “The prices will be fixed around the first week of December but they will be slightly higher as compared to last year because of the rise in prices of the major ingredients such as sugar and eggs,” said Baby, manager of Best Bakers, Kaloor.
According to industrial sources, approximately 200 crore cakes were sold in Kerala during the Christmas season last year and the number is expected to rise despite the soaring prices of essential commodities this year. This will also be the first Christmas with proper implementation of the Foods Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSASAI) Act in local bakeries.
The food safety authorities are vigilant and are carrying out routine checks to ensure that health and safety standards are being maintained in bakeries, of course without hindering the preparations.
It is a beehive of activites in the bakeries as they have to put in extra work to keep pace with the daily demands. “Cakes are sought after for domestic use and as gifts, sometimes we get bulk order and must be ready for it. The demand is more for the plum cake and rich plum cake,” said a few bakery owners.