Bengaluru :
Kodava weddings are no more about grandmother’s payasam and caramel squares. Take the case of marketing professional Vishal Ponnappa’s wedding recently. They did away with regular sweets entirely and had a two-tier cake instead.
The vanilla cake with chocolate butter cream had a Kodagu touch in handcrafted Flame Lily flowers that grow in the region. “The cake was the focus of the wedding and made for a good photo opportunity,” said the groom’s sister Veda.
Apparently, people are having a cake and eating it too, at weddings. It is no longer just a Christian tradition to cut a wedding cake. Young couples from across Indian communities including Marwaris, Punjabis and Gujaratis want statement wedding cakes that narrate their love stories. These cakes could cost up to Rs 50,000, but Bengalureans are not batting an eyelid and bakers are cashing in.
Pastry chef Irfan Ahmed from The Den recently dished out a fourtiered cake for a nikah ceremony and a handcrafted flower cake for a Jain wedding. “Cake is the big new focus at weddings. Couples spend time on planning and briefing us on their cake as much as décor and wedding wear. Floral designs, metallic finishes and 3D cakes are trending,” said Ahmed.
With at least two such orders every week, Shisham Hinduja of Happy Belly Bakes has her hands full delivering hand-painted tiered cakes in gravity-defying chandelier styles. One of her creates narrated the couple’s courtship using figurines. Another interesting order came from a mining baron: a fourtiered 15kg white-coloured cake was used as a projection screen for a video about the bride and groom.
“Brides and grooms have intense briefing sessions. Some even bring international recipes and import cake ingredients too,” said Hinduja.
Lavonne Patisserie’s inventory is dominated by wedding cake orders. “We receive about 40 wedding cake orders per month. Kids’ birthday cakes come second with just about eight orders. Customised 3-8 tiered cakes matched in accordance with the wedding theme are popular,” said the chef Shailesh Johny.
Wedding planner Krutika Mangharam noted how cake-cutting is a permanent component at sangeet, cocktail ceremony or sitdown dinners in Bengaluru weddings. A couple got her to replicate actress Sonam Kapoor’s wedding cake for their ceremony.
“It is no longer the parents but the bride and groom who brief us. Strongly influenced by social media, these youngsters are clued into global trends such as fashionable wedding cakes,” observed Mangharam.
source: http://www.economictimes.indiatimes.com / The Economic Times / Home> Magazine> Panache / by Smita Balram, ET Bureau / July 17th, 2018
