I spent my childhood in a convent school and looked forward eagerly for Christmas holidays. Just being home for Christmas was the ultimate gift for me, after the long months at boarding.
My parents had this conviction that home cooked food was the best food to give us eight children. My mother is the best cook in the world. Mothers’ cooking has this magic ingredient that contains a lot of love and care, which gives home cooked food a wonderful taste that can never be replicated anywhere else.
My mother never made a few cakes. She used to make kilos and kilos of cakes. Cake making was almost a ritual. Fruits and preserves would be made months in advance. Gourds and papaya would be cut up and chopped into tiny bits. Cooked in syrup and then stored in huge jars, they would be taken out for soaking in rum only after the citrus peels made with oranges and various limes and lemons were ready too.
Raisins would be scrubbed clean in fresh well water, and sun dried on bamboo mats. Butter and sugar would be creamed using long jack wood ladles. Large brass vessels thoroughly washed and sun dried on white cotton sheets, would be used for making the cake batter.
Cake tins would be taken down from attic, scrubbed and sun dried too. These would then be lined with paper. The baking was a slow process and the cakes would be turned out when cool. After leaving to cool them overnight on large tables, these would be packed and sent off to family and friends.
Cooking was a passion for my mother, and it has been one for me too. Luckily for me, I have been able to make my passion into my profession. I also enjoy sharing with others what I have learnt and many visit me to learn too.
There are many recipes for cakes and for Christmas cakes. Alongside, I have given a very popular recipe. It is an equal measure recipe. My mother used to make cakes using a similar recipe too.
The writer is an expert chef who conducts baking lessons for tourists in Kochi
