I’ll go out on a limb and say that no city in India celebrates Christmas with as much enthusiasm as Calcutta. This is a city where Christmas cake is available all year round, with the Jewish Bakery being very famous for it. Christmas cake People take it to other parts of the country and abroad, where Muslim bakers bake Christmas cakes to order for Hindu customers, and where the concept of celebrating Jesus Christ’s birthday with a slice or a pound of rum-soaked fruit cake seems commonplace. Wearing a monkey cap in winter.
The popularity of Christmas cakes in Calcutta is due to its large Anglo-Indian population. Growing up, many Anglo-Indian families would marinate dry fruits for months, even years, to prepare cakes and liqueurs. We’ll go and serve a slice of this rich fruit cake with a small glass of sweet fortified wine prepared from a home recipe passed down through the generations.
Burra Din, as Christmas is called locally, transforms the city. Families are reunited, streets are litAnd a festive air surrounds Calcutta – a rare break from its otherwise humid climate. The festival unites religious communities through shared traditions, transcending religion. Preparing a Christmas cake is a celebration of community across caste and religion.
Nahum & Sons: Iconic Jewish Bakery
Calcutta’s Christmas cake is at the heart of its heritage Nahum and SonsThe only Jewish bakery in town. Founded in 1902 by Israel Mordecai, the bakery is famous for its dense, rum-soaked plum cakes. I have been going there since I was 5-6 years old and have never seen the shop empty and never seen anyone taking orders. This is not a fancy patisserie. It is a non-air-conditioned store with glass windows that double as shelves for baked goods. As you look inside, you can see pizza puffs, cheese puffs, freshly baked bread, cheese straws, buttered garlic bread, and mountains of plum cake and “rich” plum cake, wrapped in butter paper, which you can then make. Pick and choose. Nahoum’s does not make Christmas cakes year-round. Customers line up hours, often weeks, in advance to secure their shares. The cake is rich, dense, and you can taste the wine in every bite. It’s so drenched in rum or brandy, it will taste as good as the day it’s cooked, even weeks later unrefrigerated and refrigerated for up to a year.
Taltala’s Muslim Bakery: A Special Tradition
Not everyone can buy a cake in Nahum or trek to a new market to buy a cake. In the narrow alleyways of Talatala are small hole-in-the-wall, Muslim-run bakeries like Kanchan Bakery––featured in newspapers and television shows––and Daliya Bakery, which brings another dimension to the Christmas cake story. These bakeries do not sell ready-made cakes but rent out their wooden ovens by the hour to customers who bring their own ingredients. Here’s a banner before December wishing everyone a “Merry Christmas” and asking people to reserve their baking slots from December 1. This is the charming aspect of Taltala Lane Bakeries. Cakes have been baked at Kanchan Bakery since December 15, even after a decade and a half of knowing about the bakery, there has been no change. From mixing the batter to baking, the process is deeply personal. This tradition, again, exemplifies the inclusive ethos of Calcutta, where Muslim-majority neighborhoods celebrate Christian festivals with Hindu clientele. This bespoke style of Christmas cake baking is neither new nor seasonal for these Muslim bakeries. They also bake biscuits and bread according to their own recipes and for people who bring ingredients.
Saldanha Bakery: A Goan Heritage
If you’d rather buy your cake ready-made, there’s also Saldanha Bakery, a 90-year-old establishment that offers pre-iced Christmas cakes that cater to a largely non-Christian clientele. Known for its consistent quality, the bakery sells up to 600,000 pounds of cake each season, almost all made to order. This Goan-owned bakery highlights how Christmas cakes are loved by different communities.
Global flavors, bow barracks and Anglo-Indian roots
Bakeries such as Monginis, Fleury and Kathleen’s, known for their “rich plum cakes”, cater to a more global clientele. These bakeries marinate their plum cakes from November to get the perfect taste.
The Anglo-Indian community of Bow Barracks has its own unique contribution to Calcutta’s Christmas celebrations. JN Barua’s 70-year-old bakery in this neighborhood offers wine cakes and traditional Christmas treats. Such bakeries are very pleasant and nondescript and have no interest in moving. They are known for their accessories, reliable recipes, baking processes, and often sell out.
Origin of Christmas Cake in India
Indulging in Christmas cake is a time-honored way to embrace the joy of the season. (Photo: Freepik)
The Christmas cake tradition in Calcutta comes from both British and Portuguese influences. While the British brought classic fruitcake recipes with cherries and dried fruit, the Portuguese adapted local ingredients such as candied pumpkin and Bengal currants. This fusion is evident in the dark cakes of Calcutta, made with brown or unrefined sugar.
The first Christmas cake in India is credited to the Mamballi family of Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, who baked it on December 20, 1883 at their Royal Biscuit Factory in Thalassery. Using local spirits instead of imported brandy, their creations began a rich brewing tradition in 1883. the country
According to Premnath Mambally, “Bapu went to Burma to make biscuits, roti and buns and started ‘Mambally’s Royal Biscuit Factory’ in Thalasari in 1880. He started with 140 varieties of biscuits. Three years later, Mr. (Murdoch) Brown, who owned a nearby estate, brought Bapu a cake he knew all about how to bake – the ingredients included French brandy. Bapu took it as a challenge but made a cake with local liquor. When the Brit tasted the cake, he famously declared it ‘excellent’ and ordered 12 more.
Regional differences
Pondicherry Christmas Cake has Creole roots. It is a rich, liquor-soaked cake (either rum or brandy is used) and is prepared with roasted semolina and ghee, marinated cashew nuts and raisins, candied fruit and citrus peel. This is another one of those cakes that will keep in an air-tight tin for months. The Anglo-Indian railway colony of Allahabad may have influenced the spiced, rum-soaked Allahabadi Christmas cake. It is known for its distinctive use of petha (cucumber candy) and marmalade, and uses ghee instead of butter and is flavored with a mixture of nutmeg, cinnamon, fennel, mace and ginger.
So, whether it’s a slice of Nahum’s Rich Plum Cake or a custom creation from Taltala, indulging in Christmas cake is a time-honored way to embrace the joy of the season. As Marie Antoinette might say, “Let them eat Christmas cake!”
Next week I will write about everything that was hot and not in food this year.
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