Christmas – New Year is definitely a time for cakes for any foodie… Among the cakes, my favourite from childhood has always been the Plum/Fruit Cake with Royal Icing on top… Mambally’s Bakery in Thalassery and their own Santha Bakery in Trivandrum has been our goto place for the same cake for decades… However, for some reason, even though we can still get good Plum Cakes, the availability of good Royal Icing with it, somehow appeared to simply vanish from the face of Trivandrum many years ago and ever since we have never been able to get the same… The last few ones I got was basically just a coloured sugar crust on top of the cake… The reason given by the bakers was that the demand for the same somehow diminished and they are basically focussing on other kinds of toppings to cater to public demand… The fondant icing is just not the same as well…
So, come 2020, around Christmas time, like I do every year, I posted in Facebook asking for recommendations on Cake options, preferably with Royal Icing and like always, I got a bunch of responses but one response caught my eye and that was from a homechef and baker named Bindu GS who contacted me and informed that she recently started making cakes especially Plum Cakes with Royal Icing and even sent me a pic which clearly looked like the one I was looking for… So, I placed the order for a cake and asked for a Plum Cake with Chocolate Royal Icing… She informed me that she has never made the icing with Chocolate before but is willing to try ie, if I am willing to take the risk 😛 I of-course chose to take the risk and here we are… The cake was delivered today in a box as cane be seen in the pic above and the cake itself looked exactly like how I expected as can be seen in the pics below… 🙂
So, the cake here is a Plum Cake, otherwise known as a Fruit Cake which is the kind of cake made using candied or dried fruits, nuts and spices, which are usually soaked in spirits like wine or rum, which is the case with this cake as informed by the baker… These cakes when made right are incredibly rich and are typically consumed on its own without any condiments… The Royal Icing for those who may not be aware or have forgotten, is an icing made using Powdered Sugar and beaten Egg Whites that becomes solid when set… Other ingredients like Vanilla, Chocolate, etc can be used for having different flavours… Here, as I asked, it was the Chocolate Icing on this cake as can be seen… The Flower decorations were made using the Icing as well…
Now lets talk about the cake that I got… First of all, when ordering, I specifically asked for extra Icing to be applied as my dad in my opinion has the strongest sweet tooth in the world and what happens usually is that we run out icing very quickly… The baker obliged and as can be seen from the pics below, she has indeed put a thick layer of Icing on the cake in addition to the decorations… 🙂 Coming to the taste, the cake itself felt very well balanced, as in not too sweet and a fair portion of the Candied and Dry Fruits along with nuts which so far, I could detect, Raisins, Tutti Frutti, Dates, Cashews, Cherries, Prunes and if I am not mistaken Figs as well… I did feel the taste of some spices too like Cinnamon, Clove and Ginger in subtle levels in the cake… The icing of-course was the best part as it turned out to be incredibly rich with the Chocolate that was used and the texture kind of felt like eating a nice rich sugary Chocolate Bar… Very indulgent indeed… Even though as the baker informed me, the ingredients were soaked in Rum, I didn’t feel the flavour of the same much which is something I liked cause I personally am not a fan of that flavour… The cake being freshly baked perfectly, was having just the right texture of it being soft and ever so slightly moist and it had a very nice fragrance of Butter, which I liked as well…
Overall, both me and my parents loved this cake very much… It brought back a lot of fond memories in me as well going back to my childhood… We’ll definitely be buying more cakes from this baker… Hopefully soon… 🙂
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