cake mixing ceremony

“Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love!”
– Hamilton Wright Mabie
Time flies and how. Seems like the year is on a gallop. I missed the walk, the trot and the canter completely. Every day is whizzing by; it’s November already! Then a few days ago I got an invite to a ‘traditional cake mixing ceremony‘, and I was like “Whoa? Is it the time of the year already”
The age old ceremony of cake mixing starts a few months before Christmas and the winter festivities and is considered to be an usher for good tidings and happiness.
Last Friday I attended the annual cake mixing ceremony at French Crust, The Surya, New Delhi. It is a tradition at the hotel to welcome the holiday season with a fruit soaking ceremony ahead of Christmas. The cake mixing ceremony marks the beginning of the Christmas festive season, where chopped dried fruit, nuts and spices are mixed together with a heady combination of booze. This mixture is then stored in an airtight container for about a month, allowing the fruit to soak up the alcohol, and then used to make Christmas plum cake and Christmas pudding. There were massive steel basins with candied ginger strips lining the bottom, and huge trays filled with fruit – raisins, black currants, candied peel, candied cherries, tutti frutti etc. along with some indian spices like cinnamon powder, nutmeg powder, star anise, cardamom powder etc. And of course the all essential ‘spirit of the season‘ in bottles – wine, rum and whiskey etc. to soak the fruit with.
To set the ceremony off, we were each handed gloves, aprons and chefs hats. Mr. Dhananjay Kumar, General Manager along with the Executive Chef initiated this much awaited ceremony. We set to work with handfuls of fruit ceremoniously dumped into the steel basins. Once all the fruit was in, and well mixed, the bottle were emptied in one by one, with warnings on ‘no swigs allowed‘. A load of fun and a load of work, all amidst great cheer and fervour. Never knew that cake-mixing could be therapeutically euphoric!! We all were in the Spirit of Christmas, infact that’s the beauty of all the festivals. It was a lovely afternoon, made even nicer with some wonderful company and delicious canapes and wine.