Christmas & New Year cakes: Big business in Kerala

Can you guess the volume of Christmas and New Year cake sales in Kerala, India? Rs.25-30 crores during the season mid-December to the first week of January. This includes exports to USA where many expatriate Mallus long for the taste of Kerala plum cakes.

In the current season a Kerala hotel, Uday Samudra Leisure Beach Hotel, Kovalam, has broken the world record for the tallest cake ever made. The height of this 2500 kg marvel is 29.1 feet. The giant cake is to be cut into 22,000 portions and distributed among the poor children of Trivandrum according to media reports.

Cake has a centuries old history. The word is believed to have its origin from Old Norse kaka of the Vikings. The European tradition of cakes was carried to different parts of the world, particularly by the British. Initially the expatriates in different parts of the Empire imported cakes from the home country.

In India this delicacy had a late arrival. It would appear that in 1883 December one Mr. Brown in Tellicherry, Kerala gave a piece of cake to Mampally Bappu who had started The Royal Biscuit Factory three years earlier and asked whether he could bake a similar one.

The Tellicherry baker took up the challenge. He analyzed the ingredients used in the sample by, I suppose, smell and taste, had a local blacksmith make the mold, and produced a cake for Brown. This was the beginning of the Indian cake industry according to the information that I have been able to gather. Will viewers who have more details on this subject please share them with the others?

It seems that Mampally Bakers of Tellicherry exported their products to several countries and perhaps for the troops as well, during the First World War! Even today the bakery is popular and is a must visit place for travelers to the historic Tellicherry Town on the west coast of Kerala.

I feel that this institution was responsible for the ‘cake’ part of Tellicherry being described as the place of ‘cakes, cricket and circus’.

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Also see: Tellicherry, Cradle of Indian Cricket; Mahe River, English Channel?

Tellicherry, Cradle of Indian Cricket; Mahe River, English Channel?

Tellicherry which is a coastal town in north Kerala is sometimes referred to as the city of cricket, cakes and circus. Along with the rest of the country, Tellicherry which has a cricket ground that is 207 years old, is also celebrating the Platinum Jubilee of India’s entry into Test cricket. The Bi-centenary of the Tellicherry Municipal Cricket Ground (now Thalasserry Stadium) was celebrated in 2002 with a match between former Indian and Sri Lankan cricketers.

It is believed that Arthur Wellesley (1^st Duke of Wellington of Waterloo fame - see photo) brought cricket to Tellicherry in the 1790s when he was commanding the East India Company’s army in Kerala and Karnataka. What is interesting is that apart from the soldiers of the Tellicherry garrison, Wellesley introduced the game to the locals also. As a result, cricket became a way of life for the people of that area. Wellesley also took the game to Srirangapattinam after the British defeated Tippu Sultan of Mysore.

The locals formed Tellicherry Town Cricket Club in 1860, the year that cricket was introduced in Calcutta. There were regular tournaments and matches including Ranji Trophy fixtures at Tellicherry ever since.

It is said that Colin Cowdrey’s (Baron Cowdrey of Tonbridge, b. December 24, 1932, Bangalore, India) father laid the first proper pitch in Tellicherry. Colin himself is believed to have played the game there.

The cricket fervor continues unabated in Tellicherry, and nearby town of Kannur (Canannore).

Between Tellicherry (which was under the British) and Mahe (former French posession) is the Mahe River (Mayyazhi puzha). I believe it used to be jokingly referred to as ‘English Channel’!

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Also see:

Cricket in remote areas

On the Banks of River Mahe