Amritsar, December 16
With Christmas celebrations barely a week away, cake mixing ceremonies were held at multiple city hotels and restaurants to mark the festivities. A number of hotels and hotel management schools have been conducting the ceremony to mark the beginning of Christmas, to be celebrated on December 25.
A cake mixing ceremony was organised by various hotels such as Courtyard by Marriot, Humble Hotels, Taj Swarna and many others. It’s a tradition where large amounts of dry fruits, nuts and liquor are added and mixed with community participation to celebrate the spirit of Christmas. This tradition is being followed in the West and now adopted in India as well. The cake is then baked and served on the Christmas eve to the guests.
The tradition began in the 17th century, when Christmas cake or Christmas pudding as it is called was mixed using many dried fruits held together by egg and flour, sometimes moistened by molasses and flavored with cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger and other spices. Dry fruits, cherries, tutti-fruity, cranberries, dates, sultanas etc. comprise over 70 ingredients that have to be macerated in spirits such as brandy, whiskey and rum to soften them.
