On a warm Christmas afternoon, Tina Misquitta gleams as she sips wine with her family in her Turner Road home.
No wonder vegetarians and people allergic to eggs are her faithfuls
MUMBAI: On a warm Christmas afternoon, Tina Misquitta gleams as she sips wine with her family in her Turner Road home.
Boxes of Christmas sweets adorn her table. The tradition of exchanging sweets dates back to her younger days at Runwar village in Bandra. “It is the one thing that I wait for throughout the year,” she says. And the look of satisfaction on the faces of her friends and family members while they relish the sweets is her best reward, she says. “We started it within our family and gradually expanded the circuit to our friends. I have a 40-box target every year and I start preparing for it a month in advance.”
Raisins are soaked a month in advance to get the right flavour of rum in the pudding. “This is not a business, but I am so much into this during Christmas that my children think I am crazy,” she says. The triangular sweet box is filled with traditional Christmas pudding, marzipans and jujubes.
For Sonjuhi Malhotra, making cakes is business. And her name does the rounds in Juhu. An expert in cakes and sweets without preservatives or eggs, her Christmas bestsellers are the simnel (marzipan and plum) cake, Dundee cake and the traditional plum cake. “Mistletoe and Santa-shaped cakes are a hit among kids this season,” she says. “Preservatives directly affect the organs in your body. They make them slower.” It is all about cleanliness. “When the place is clean no preservatives are required,” she says.
Vegetarians and people allergic to egg are her faithful clients. Though the cakes are steeply priced, her clients are more than happy to pay up because of rising health concerns. Marzipans and fruit centre truffles are hot-selling items this Christmas, she says. Her clientele has, however, changed in the past 15 years. “With society becoming more and more secular, I get several orders even from non-Christians during Christmas.”
j_mayura@dnaindia.net
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}