Christmas Cake in Kolkata: Muslim cooks, Hindu customers and a Christian recipe

Burra Din, as Christmas is locally called, transforms the city. Families reunite, streets light up, and an air of festivity engulfs Calcutta—a rare break from its otherwise humid climate. The celebration transcends religion, uniting religious communities through shared traditions. Preparing Christmas cake itself is a celebration of community, cutting across caste and religion.

Nahoum’s and Sons: The iconic Jewish bakery

At the heart of Calcutta’s Christmas cake legacy lies Nahoum’s and Sons, the only Jewish bakery in the city. Established 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 or 6 years old and have never seen the shop empty or seen anyone’s orders getting mixed up. This is not a fancy patisserie. This is a non-air conditioned store with glass windows which double up as shelves for the baked goods. When you’re staring in, you can look at the 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 pick and choose from. Nahoum’s doesn’t make Christmas cake through the year. Customers queue up for hours, often weeks in advance, to secure their share. The cake is rich, dense, and you can taste alcohol in every bite. It is so steeped in rum or brandy, it will taste as good as the day it was baked, even weeks later without being refrigerated and for a year in the fridge.

Taltala’s Muslim bakeries: A bespoke tradition

Not everyone can afford the cake at Nahoum’s or trudge to New Market just to buy cake. In Taltala’s narrow lanes are small hole-in-the-wall, Muslim-run bakeries like Kanchan Bakery––featured in newspapers and television shows––and Dalia Bakery, which bring another dimension to the Christmas cake story. These bakeries don’t sell ready-made cakes but rent out their wood-fired ovens by the hour to customers who bring their own ingredients. A banner is put up here before December wishing everyone a “Merry Christmas,” and asking people to reserve their baking slots from December 1. This is an endearing aspect of the bakeries in Taltala Lane. Cakes start being baked at Kanchan bakery from December 15, and this has not changed in the one-and-a-half decades since I came to know of the bakery. From mixing batter to baking, the process is deeply personalised. This tradition, again, exemplifies Calcutta’s inclusive ethos, where a predominantly Muslim locality celebrates a Christian festival with Hindu clientele. This bespoke style of baking Christmas cakes is not new or seasonal for these Muslim bakeries. They also bake biscuits and breads according to their own recipe and for people who bring ingredients.

Saldanha bakery: A Goan legacy

 

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If you’d rather buy your cake readymade though, there’s also Saldanha Bakery, a 90-year-old institution that offers pre-iced Christmas cakes that cater largely to non-Christian customers. 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 cherished by diverse communities.

Cosmopolitan flavours, Bow Barracks and Anglo-Indian roots

Bakeries like Monginis, Flury’s, and Kathleen’s, known for their “rich plum cakes,” cater to a more cosmopolitan clientele. These bakeries marinate their plum cake since November to achieve the perfect flavour.

The Anglo-Indian community of Bow Barracks has its own unique contributions to Calcutta’s Christmas celebrations. J N Barua’s 70-year-old bakery in this neighbourhood offers wine cakes and traditional Christmas treats. Such bakeries are so ramshackle and nondescript and have no interest in moving. They are known for their wares, reliable recipes baking procedures, and are mostly sold out.

The origins of Christmas cake in India

Indulging in Christmas cake is a time-honoured way to embrace the season’s cheer. (Photo: Freepik)

The Christmas cake tradition in Calcutta likely draws from both British and Portuguese influences. While the British brought classic fruitcake recipes with cherries and dried fruits, the Portuguese adapted local ingredients like candied pumpkin and Bengal currant. This fusion is evident in Calcutta’s darker cakes, made with brown or unrefined sugar.

The first Christmas cake in India is credited to Mambally family from Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram, who baked it at their Royal Biscuit Factory in Thalassery on December 20, 1883. Using local brews instead of imported brandy, their creation marked the beginning of a rich baking tradition in the country.

According to Premnath Mambally, “Bapu started ‘Mambally’s Royal Biscuit Factory’ in Thalassery in 1880, after going to Burma to learn the making of biscuits, bread and buns. He began with 140 varieties of biscuits. Three years later, Mr (Murdoch) Brown, who owned one of the estates nearby, brought a cake to Bapu and told him all he knew about how to bake one — the ingredients included a French Brandy. Bapu took it as a challenge but made the cake with the local brew. When the Britishman tasted the cake, he famously said ‘Excellent’ and ordered 12 more.”

Regional variations

The Pondicherry Christmas cake has Creole roots. It’s a rich, alcohol-soaked cake (either rum or brandy are used) and is prepared with roasted semolina and ghee, marinated cashews and raisins, candied fruits and citrus peels. This is another one of those cakes which will just keep in an air-tight tin, for months on end. The Anglo-Indian railway colony of Allahabad might have influenced the spiced, rum-soaked Allahabadi Christmas cake. It’s known for its distinctive use of petha (ash-gourd candy) and marmalade, and uses ghee instead of butter and is flavoured with a mix of nutmeg, cinnamon, fennel, mace and ginger.

So, whether it’s a slice of Nahoum’s rich plum cake or a custom creation from Taltala, indulging in Christmas cake is a time-honoured way to embrace the season’s cheer. As Marie Antoinette might say, “Let them eat Christmas cake!”

Next week I’ll be writing on all that was hot and not in food this year.