What makes Ooty’s plum cakes special?

Experience the tradition of authentic plum cakes in Udhagamandalam, with bakeries following British recipes dating back over 70 years.

The tiny baking unit at Shreeya’s Bakes is enveloped in the sweet smell of freshly-baked bread and their signature wheat varkey. The bakery, tucked away into a by-lane near the iconic Government Botanical Garden in Udhagamandalam, is over 70 years old, and houses a vintage wood-fired oven that has been in use since its existence. C Rajkumar, the proprietor, slices a piece of plum cake for us to try. “It’s not our best,” he says, apologetically.

The cake is soft and fragrant, but Rajkumar says that when his father made it, it was something else. “It is my dream to bake the authentic plum cake again,” says the 70-year-old, adding that he would take it up only if he has enough orders. His father PC Chupparan would soak eight varieties of nuts and dry fruits in a massive steel drum in preparation of the cake. “He learnt the technique from a butler who worked for the British,” he recalls.

With Christmas fast approaching, plum cakes are making an appearance at bakery shelves. Bakeries in the hill town take their plum cakes seriously, with a handful of them still following the traditional method of soaking nuts and dry fruits in liquor weeks ahead of Christmas.

“Plum cakes originated in Europe, France specifically,” says R Surendran, the head chef at Gem Park Ooty. “They are loaded with nuts and dry fruits to pack plenty of energy for the winter months,” explains the 50-year-old, adding, “Think of them like a granola bar.” Surendran says that the Britishers added spices to the original recipe after they colonised India. In Udhagamandalam, butlers of British officials perfected the recipe and techniques that were handed down over the years. “They later started baking the cakes for a living, passing on the knowledge to local chefs,” says Surendran, adding with a chuckle, “It eventually reached people such as me.”

Every year, Surendran soaks massive quantities of walnuts, cashews, pistachios, and almonds, dry fruits such as dates, prunes, cherries, and blackcurrants in a mixture or rum, brandy, red wine, and whisky for a month ahead of the Christmas season. He makes 150 kilograms of the cakes, that he ships across India to their regular customers. On a chilly winter morning in the hill town, he offers us a slice he has baked for us to sample.

It is the spices that first hit us: cinnamon takes the lead, and by the time we get a feel of the cloves and nutmeg, the dense, mildly bitter taste of chewy nuts fills the senses. The cake is crumbly and moist at the same time, and is different from the plum cakes in the plains. It is not cloyingly sweet, and warms our insides on the cold day. “This is what it is meant for,” says Surendran. The hotel has a yearly mixing ceremony during which its well-wishers are invited to lend a hand in the tradition.

At King Star, among the first people to make homemade chocolates in Udhagamandalam, the soaking is done a year before. “The more this mixture ages, the better,” says Leanne Sapna Murugan, who runs Leanne’s Confectionery, a unit of King Star. Leanne is from the fourth generation in the family to run the bakery business, that also has a British connect. “My grandfather T Thambusamy started King Star as a small outlet selling sweets and chocolates in 1942,” recalls 55-year-old Murugan Max, Leanne’s father. Thambusamy used to work at a confectionary Britishers frequented, and gradually learned to bake himself, imbibing several of their recipes. “He first had a small outlet on Hospital Road, selling Japanese cakes, marshmallows, logs, eclairs, Easter eggs, and stick jaw toffees, apart from plum cakes,” says Max.