visit to New Market was mandatory. Ingredients like dry fruits, tutti-frutti, red and green dyed orange peels, glazed red cherries, green and black raisins, rum, etc., had to be bought. Then they would create their own batter and mix dry fruits. Back in the day, most people didn’t have ovens at home to bake cakes. Cakes had to be made and distributed to friends and family as well for “Bada Din”. So, there would be beelines outside small bakeries with the batter to bake them in their ovens. “When we were young, we would stand like a hawk over the process so that they ‘don’t get ripped off, men!’,” says journalist Stephanie Sweeney, laughing. Debra Alexander, the owner of yet another iconic bakery, Saldanha, remembers it all too well, as if it were just yesterday. The 58-year-old gave up her banking job to follow in her father’s footsteps to run the bakery started by her grandmother and where she literally grew up. “Back in the day, a lot of families would come with their ingredients to bake their cakes. Unfortunately, it started getting difficult as the business expanded and the demand increased. Hence, we started referring them to bakers around,” says Debra, who along with her daughter Alisha Alexander (a Le Cordon Bleu alumna), now runs the bakery. Memories That Linger For Rukshana, bakeries like Saldanha, Great Eastern Bakery, Nahoum and Flurys still hold a special place in her heart. Cakes, and especially plum cakes, have been a part of her growing up, the way it has been for most denizens of the city. As Sanghvi puts it: “It’s worth remembering that plum cake for Christmas is mostly a British thing (not so common elsewhere) and Kolkata was the city most connected to British tradition.” Rukshana feels that while the packaging has improved these days and the cakes certainly look better and more polished, she yearns for the times when plum cakes “helped us extend Christmas and the spirit of Christmas.” She still remembers fondly the cake from Flurys that would be covered in hard marzipan icing, and each bakery had its own flavour. Then there were cakes made at home as well. In her house, the tradition was tossing a coin in the batter, and then the excitement that followed while cutting the cake as to who would get the coin were some of the warm memories that she carries with her. Sanghvi, whose plum cake favourite was always Nahoum, remembers being confused as a child by the difference between plum pudding and plum cake. “That’s my earliest memory. And I am still not sure what the difference is! But as a child I used to get inordinately excited when they flambéed it,” he says. Vikas Kumar, executive chef at Flurys, says the recipe of their iconic plum cake has remained unchanged over the decades. “The only thing that has changed is the number of plum cakes we make every year. I’m sure the main recipe is at least 100 years old, and we have changed nothing of it,” he assures. It’s the memory of the plum cake that has propelled Puri from Trincas to come up with a whole new cocktail named Christmas Cake this season. “We have used all the flavours you get in a Christmas cake,” he says. That’s the thing about Christmastide — you always associate it with memories. And after all, is there anything that smells sweeter than memories of times gone by? 18 DECEMBER 2025 • FRESH.DAILYPIONEER.COM Pics Courtesy: Rashbehari Das, Flurys, Nahoum & Sons, Trincas and Saldanha Bakery
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