Welcoming Christmas

To mark the arrival of Christmas season, people around the world indulge in the traditional ceremony of cake-mixing. It is indeed a delight to watch them having fun while mixing lots of colourful dates, dry fruits, cherries, dates, and plums together with some of their favourite drinks.

Cake mixing ceremony is considered to be an auspicious event that involves mixing of varieties of nuts and fruits with liquor. The mixture is then left to soak for nearly two months to get the best of Christmas plum cakes. Likewise, just two months before the Christmas, several hotels in and around the city start kick-start their celebrations with the ceremonial cake mixing. The Lalit Great Eastern Kolkata is one of such hotels which celebrates the ritual at the Bakery with a lot of extravagance. Considered to be an usher for happiness, the event was hosted in the presence of many esteemed personalities of Kolkata on Friday, September 30.

The event started with a speech by the Rakesh Mitra, the General Manager of the brand new Lalit Great Eastern Collaboration. “Our hotel has been celebrating this ritual for a long time now and I’m proud to say that the Lalit Great Eastern comes up with the best set of traditional plum cakes in the city,” said Mitra.

After Mitra declared the event open, all the invitees and others present at the venue were handed aprons, gloves and chef caps and given a signal to start mixing chopped cashews, raisins, glace cherries, raw papayas( tutti-frutti), and black currants with a generous amounts of rum, whiskey, and brandy. This marinated assortment of dry fruits will be included when baking plum cakes and desserts for the festive season.

From children to adults, everyone present participated in the event and the enthusiasm of cake mixing reflected on their faces. In order to make it more exciting, a coin was placed in each one of the containers and gift vouchers was provided to those who were lucky enough to find them. The ceremony was followed by High Tea, where people enjoyed a variety of scrumptious snacks.

Also, in keeping with the spirit of festivities, every year the first batch of cookies from the legendary oven is distributed amongst the underprivileged school children during Christmas and the proceeds from the Christmas sale is donated to the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund.With less than two months to go for Christmas, you can bank upon The Lalit Great Eastern for mouth-watering plum cakes without a doubt.