First of all, what an evening !!! Absolutely fantastic time and wonderful food and wine 🙂
I was invited by Smitha Kuttayya of Baked Delightss to be a part of the ‘Annual Fruit Soaking Session’ for their Christmas plum cakes. While this itself was something that I couldn’t refuse, I was also told that it will be followed by a Tasting session of her home-made wines and a High Tea with signature dishes from Baked Delightss. That’s it ! I confirmed right away and I was ready to go !!! 😀
The event was scheduled at 17:30 hrs on Sunday and I reached pretty much on time, a delay of five or ten minutes is excusable 😉 Another friend of mine and a popular food blogger and photographer Karthik Ganapathi was also there when I entered. We had a coffee and chatted for sometime and by then all the guests had arrived and the event was good to start.
Just to give you a little brief about Baked Delightss, it is a home-baking venture by Smitha Kuttayya and she does a variety of cakes, and her ‘Christmas Plum Cakes’ and ‘Rum and Caramel Cakes’ are mind-blowing. She also does cookies, cupcakes, gingerbread, mousse, and much more ! She does a variety of baked dishes and her ‘Chicken Bake’ is very popular! She also makes wine at home they are wonderful too! Rice wine, Passion Fruit wine, Grape wine, and a liqueur called Irish Creme which is made with Whisky, Coffee and Milk are some of the signature items from Baked Delightss.
Coming back to the event, there were two big trays on the table and a lot of containers by the side. There were figs, cashews, orange peel cooked in sugar syrup, raisins, caramel, cinnamon powder, rum, brandy and a lot of home-made wine. Basically this was a session where all these were going to be mixed thoroughly and rested for at least a couple of months until the baking of Christmas Cakes would commence. Slowly the dry fruits and nuts would absorb all the alcohol and every bite of the cake would tell you what went in 😉 As the event progressed, I clicked a few photographs and the guests happily participated. The event concluded when all the dry fruits and nuts were done.
While we took a small break, the next session of Wine-Tasting was ready. We were served a ‘Cocktail’ wine and this was a mix of many home-made wines. It tasted good. I am not a wine-buff, so I can’t really comment on the minute details that a professional wine-taster would do, but it tasted good and was more than ‘smooth’.
High Tea followed and the table was set with the signature items from Baked Delightss. My first reaction was ‘Wow!! What a spread!!!’ Quickly I will try to list all the items that were there in the spread. You can look at the photos and relate to them. Vegetarian Bake, Veg Cutlets, Chicken Bake, Chicken Cutlets, Coorg style Puttu, Peas Masala, Apple and Nuts salad and salad dressing were ready on the table. Equally elaborate desserts were on the other side – Rum and Caramel Cake, Coffee Cream Pudding, Chocolate and Orange Rind pudding, and a liquor-free chocolate cake. By the time we tasted a bit of ‘everything’ we were like way too stuffed! Everything was so tasty that it was a real conflict between the mind and the stomach 🙂
Next was the tasting of the home-made grape wine. This was also quite good. Basically there’s a difference that one must understand between a store-bought and a home-made wine. The percentage of alcohol shouldn’t be your main concern when going for this wine. If so, you are better off with the choices available in our famous liquor stores.
With this, the evening came to an end and we thanked the wonderful hosts and proceeded home.
I’ve tasted their plum cake a year ago, and I should say, I was very impressed. That was one of the reasons that I readily agreed to go when I was invited. I have had plum cakes in quite a few places and generally you would have felt the cakes a bit dry and difficult to swallow. I must say this was one of the best plum cakes I ever had. They were moist, easy to swallow and flavorsome. My wife felt the smell of alcohol was a little dominating, but then I was like ‘C’mmon, it is more than welcome’ 😉 Last year I tried their rice wine, passion fruit wine and grape wine and my order of preference was rice, grape and passion fruit.
Overall, a wonderful evening, and I know I have to wait for at least a couple of months for the plum cake. However, I would be more than happy to place an order for the ‘Chicken Bake’ and ‘Rum and Caramel Cake’ as I truly enjoyed it !
If you liked what you just read, and would like to know more, or order from here, please write a message to Baked Delightss.
One last thought to myself – Buy a Flash right away !!! I took my camera along and the light was not enough, and I couldn’t get ONE snap right! I had to completely click with my Samsung Galaxy S3 and I should say it saved my &^&^ .. ok…It saved me! 😉
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