16 December,2016 08:30 AM IST | | Joanna Lobo
Get your sweet fix this Christmas with cranberry biscottis, PudCakes, buttermints, plum cake in a jar and other experiments by Mumbai's chefs and home bakers
The Christmas spread by Silverspoon Gourmet; (above left) founders Joshua D'Souza and Neha Manekia. PICs/SHADAB KHAN
Snowball cookies
In its fourth year, Silverspoon Gourmet, run by husband wife duo Joshua D'Souza and Neha Manekia, will be serving up a platter of exotic Christmas treats. "There will be Florentines, chocolate barks, hot cocoa jars, brownies, buttermints and truffles. A lot of the stuff is what's worked in the past but we've also created a few new, fun elements," says Manekia. For instance, there's Snowball Cookies (in pic, far left corner) - tiny cookies with cinnamon and almond shaped like snowballs, and dusted with icing sugar; buttermints, soft after-dinner mints, and six-inch chocolate barks made with nuts, and blondies.
Call 9820044424; last day for orders is December 23; one day notice required
Cost Rs 350 (Cocoa jar) to Rs 2,000 (Santa's sleigh)
PudCakes
At Celebrations Fine Confections in Breach Candy, their Christmas preparations begin a year in advance, with the soaking of raisins in rum. This mixture forms the stuffing of their PudCake, a gooey, moist cake filled with boozy stuffed fruits. "The PudCake tastes like a pudding but looks like a cake. It is filled with cherries, prunes, walnuts and candied orange peel and lots of alcohol," says Mehernosh Khajotia, head chef.
Call: 9870402901; four days'
notice required
Cost: Rs 1,500 for a kg; free delivery from Cuffe Parade to Bandra, Rs 150 for delivery up to Borivli
Cake pops
The festive season sends Gayatri Joshi, the founder of With Love, Chocolate, on overdrive. This year, the Chembur-based home chef is baking themed truffles - in cherry, cheesecake, rum, blueberry and coffee flavours, and cake pops. She has piped these with chocolate and icing to make them look like snowmen, snowflakes and Christmas trees. "I bake a cake and then pat it out, coat it with chocolate and create different shapes using a cookie cutter. These cake pops then go on a stick making it easier for people to hold," says Joshi. The Christmas tree cake pop will be a plain dark chocolate one and the snowman cake pop variety will be in chocolate and mint flavours.
The truffles, on the other hand, are shaped into balls and covered with sprinkles and icing.
email: gayatrij315@gmail.com
Cost: Starts at Rs 20 per piece (truffles), Rs 50 (cake pops)
Genoa cake
Last year, in a bid to try something new, Amrita Iyer, food blogger and home baker made a Genoa cake. It is a version of a Christmas cake from Genoa in Italy that was common in the sixteenth century. "This is a fruit cake with dried fruits soaked in rum - pineapple, kiwi, cherries, strawberries and papaya. What differentiates it from a typical Christmas cake is that you brush the top with jam and then put in preserved fruits giving it a crown-like effect," says Iyer, who preserves the fruit herself.
Call: 9029788776, three days' notice required
Cost: Rs 500 (1 kg)
