MOVE OVER MITHAI, CAKE WAY!
This festive season cakes are making a special appearance in different shapes and sizes. Here’s a look at what’s in trend
Come festivities, mithai and milk-based sweets take the front seat. But, this year, festive cakes have made a splash. From rabdi and gulab jamun flavours, to fault line and massive cakes, there’s much that went down (our throats).
CAKE TRENDS
Trends in the cake industry change on a regular basis and the current trend is of fault line cakes. Manish Khanna, founder and partner, Noir and Brownie Point, says, “A tall cake is made and with icing and a fault line is created across the sides, with fillings of either candy, printed matter or gems in the centre, and the edges are laced with gold leaf or paint. With the internet brimming with options, people are keeping up with trends and the minute a new one starts somewhere in the world, we, in India, are ready with our versions of it.”
Namrataa Kripallani, founder, Forennte Patisserie, shares that tall cakes are definitely in this season. “Clients are loving customised tall cakes topped with French macarons, chocolate shards and fresh flowers. A touch of gold and glitter is the trend of this festive season.”
Coming to the festive surprise, Jordan Colaco, head chef, Cinco, says. “The cake trends for the season are more innovative with lots of flavours brought together. For Diwali, it was rasmalai cake with pista and saffron mousse, for October fest, we have maple bacon cheesecake.”
Selva, executive pastry chef, The Westin, says, “This festive season there are nut filled cakes and ones with Indian flavoured spices. Special cakes focus more on flavours and nuts. Decide the flavour and nuts that compliment your cake and play around to bake a perfect treat this season.”
FLAVOURS OF THE SEASON
Bunty Mahajan from Deliciae is of the opinion that custom cakes have been a long standing member of the cake family. She says, “Often made in sync with a theme, people choose to incorporate fashion, music, hobbies, games and anything else you can think of.
For the grandeur that tall cakes carry with them, these are a preferred options for weddings and engagements.”
Chef Amal Forooque, SugarOverDose adds, “Tall cakes add a lot of character to the look and flavors of cake. It helps to showcase the fillings, textures of a cake and yet add to the look & feel of the cake. While having an extravagant appeal to it.”
Sandhya Seshadri of L’eclair Studio adds,
“In the recent times chefs have started experimenting with flavours that go well with chocolate such as passion fruit, raspberry and tahini. Another upcoming flavour is ispahan, a combinati on of rose, lychee and raspberry. To keep up with the everchanging trends, they also often experiment with different flavours such as avocado flavoured cakes, olive oil infused cakes, vegan cakes, keto and paleo friendly, etc.”
DRAMATIC CAKES
Chocolates molded into the shape of crackers like sparklers, rassi bombs, anar, laxmi bomb, ladi bomb etc. Khanna says, “For the quintessential card player during Diwali, we have chocolate molded in the form of playing cards, poker chips and currency. Apart from these, we have the roasted almond stuffed dates coated with chocolate cones and blueberry jam, honey nut crunch cake, the bonbon chocolates with soft centres, also replacing photos with currency and doing the currency pull cakes for a fun evening. Doing the same even in a giant cupcake.”
Nilesh Mandadkar, executive pastry chef, The Chocolate Spoon Company, “We also have explosive akes which is a urprise in its itself and a favourite for every season. They come in two variants — chocolate and ainbow. “