JOIN USThe end of the year brings with it some great festivals around the corner and Christmas is one of the popular ones. Although the celebration is bound to start only during December, there are important preparations that need to be done a couple of weeks in advance. The grand soaking of dried fruits in glorious alcohol for delicious plum cakes is one of them.
The Lalit Ashok also brought in the festive fervour by inviting a handful of in-house guests and regulars at their hotel for the fruit soaking, which is also known as the cake mixing ceremony. The event was held at the serene setting of ‘The Poolside’. The process started with everyone gearing up with gloves, caps and aprons. Then, they went on to the ceremony of pouring out the whiskies, dark and white rum and red and white wine into the dry fruit table. The joyful experience began when everyone dug into the process and gave it a good mix. This amalgamation of fruits was then taken in to ferment in big barrels and left till it is ready to be used in preparing delicious Christmas cakes.
The mixture consisted of fruits like raisins, figs, orange peels, cloves, ginger, cinnamon and more. Cakes, pies, puddings and cookies will be prepared mid-December.
Chef Suvaranjan Banerjee, Executive Chef of The Lalit Ashok, was thrilled. He says, “We hope to make this Christmas a great experience since we have a lot of new people on our culinary team. We hope to bring in new variations to our recipes and have a great time with our loved ones during the festive season.” The man who will be behind this masterpiece is Chef Bhaskar Chakraborty, the Pastry Chef, who is also looking forward to the final year celebrations. “It’s my first year of Christmas with my new team and I am very thrilled to bring great pastries to the table. I have a few ideas in mind that I would like to execute and I hope everyone will enjoy them as well,” he adds. Though everyone who attended the ceremony were cold due to the constant rain, the swaying of the trees by the wind and the fruit soaking proved to be a wonderful and therapeutic experience.