There are desserts, and then there is the plum cake. For many of us, this rich, dark confection is less a recipe and more a feeling—a comforting slice of sticky, sweet nostalgia.
As a Bangalorean, my deepest memories of this festive treat are rooted not in Christmas celebrations, but in the annual pilgrimage my dad and I made to Fatima Bakery. The air thick with the aroma of spices and caramelized sugar, the texture of the candied fruits, the burst of juicy raisins… it’s a flavour that instantly transports me back to a safe, cozy childhood.
As I grew up, my tasting tour expanded to include the city’s other legendary institutions: All Saints, Thom’s, Albert, and Excelsior. Each institution offers a unique, cherished take on the classic.
My personal culinary journey quickly moved from tasting to making. In my quest to perfect my own plum cake, I realized I needed to understand its soul, prompting an urge to trace the cake’s very origins
📜 The Ancestry of Cake: From Offering to Oven
The cake we cherish today boasts a surprisingly long and fascinating lineage, evolving over millennia from simple, sweetened bread:
The greatest of civilisations indulged in the cakes. The earliest ‘cakes’ were sweet breads, often enhanced with honey and used as religious offerings in Egypt.
Then came the classical Greek civilisation, who developed plakous, a flatter cake made from flour, honey, and eggs.
The Imperial Romans elevated the process, creating richer cakes with butter and eggs. They also pioneered the use of leavening agents, leading to the lighter, airier texture we have.
Centuries of refinement gave us processed sugar to modern baking powder paving the way for the fluffy, moist celebratory cakes we know today.
God’s Own Recipe: The Birth of India’s Christmas Cake
How did this European tradition become an essential part of the Indian festive table? The answer lies on the shores of the Malabar coast.
The story starts in 1883 in Thalassery, Kerala. A British planter named Murdock Brown challenged local baker Mambally Bapu to recreate a Christmas cake, providing a sample and suggesting the use of French brandy for soaking the fruit.
Bapu, a skilled baker who had honed his craft in Burma, accepted the challenge, but with a brilliant, local substitution:
🌟The Malabar Twist: Instead of costly imported ingredients, Bapu sourced spices from the Malabar coast and replaced the French brandy with a locally brewed spirit made from cashew apples and bananas!
The result was a resounding success—a unique, potent, and intensely aromatic cake that Brown declared “Excellent.” This moment is widely credited as the dawn of Christmas cake baking in India, a legacy proudly carried forward by Mambally’s Royal Biscuit Factory to this day.
🎁 Sweet Endings and New Beginnings
The plum cake is far more than a seasonal treat; it’s a living testament to history, tradition, and the beautiful blending of global cultures with local innovation. From the ancient Egyptians’ honeyed offerings to the bold, spiced brew of the Malabar coast, to Sweet Talk offering a close creation of this dark, dense slice to tell a comforting story or create a memory.
This Christmas gift or indulge in our Christmas Hampers! To order call:
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