Mommies abandon the traditonal 1-kilo choc cake to serve individual Stawberry Cream cupcakes at kiddie parties. US snack dessert chain Cinnabon is set to open two more branches after just three weeks of opening the first. The city is rediscovering a hipper sweet tooth
Mommies abandon the traditonal 1-kilo choc cake to serve individual Stawberry Cream cupcakes at kiddie parties. US snack dessert chain Cinnabon is set to open two more branches after just three weeks of opening the first. The city is rediscovering a hipper sweet tooth
How did you celebrate your ninth birthday? Bet it was with a whipped cream-cherry-chocolate topped black forest cake, or, if you were playing safe, a pale yellow pineapple cake that everyone would like. Unlikely that you've eaten either lately, though. 
A customer can't quite make up her mind at Bandra's dessert haven, Tart.
Cupcakes are the current rage, with mommies ordering them over traditional
birthday cakes for their babies' parties. Pic/Vikas Munipalle
"I always thought black forest cakes were a little too creamy, but back then, we hardly had flavours," says writer-foodie Kunal Vijaykar. He is right. Apart from good ol' Monginis or your neighbourhood Iranian cafe that sold the tightly-frosted pink and green flower-topped cakes, it was only at five-stars that you found other varieties.
Not anymore. Take a walk down any residential lane and you'll trip over a doughnut, cupcake or at least a blueberry cheesecake. In the last two years, several pastry joints have jostled for space in the city, including Mad Over Donuts, Butterfly Cupcakes, La 15 Patisserie, Tart, Sleight of Hand, SH Donuts, La Dolce Vita, and the most recent US snack-dessert chain to come town, Cinnabon. US doughnut and coffee retailer Dunkin Donuts is in talks to launch in the city. It's obvious that the word pastry now means a whole lot more than just chocolate, flour and sugar.
Roll play
It's noon on a week day at Cinnabon's Bandra Pali Naka branch. The American cinnamon roll chain launched its first outlet a couple of weeks ago. The counter is stacked with steaming Classic, Pecan Nut Cinnabons and Cinna-stix. Upstairs in a tiny kitchen, three men work in perfect tandem, rolling out dough, layering the frosting, sprinkling brown sugar and cinnamon, before tossing it into the oven. Initially, they were not sure whether their rolls would find patrons in the subcontinent, admits Zayed L Kazi, marketing manager. "Two years ago, we managed to convince them, and launched the first Cinnabon in Delhi in 2009." Ten months later, they began work on the Mumbai outlets. Cinnabon will soon be available in Juhu and Colaba. Judging by the crowd at the Bandra branch (mostly female), it's clear that the city has taken a fancy to cinnamon-flavoured snack-dessert.
And it doesn't stop at that. "There's an 8 per cent growth per year in the Indian pastry market," insists Kazi. If you turn to Union Park in Khar, there's Butterfly, which is Shaana Gwynn and Sarah Jane's cupcake joint. If you stroll back to Hill Road in Bandra, you can't miss Aashiana Shroff's pretty little Tart. Turn town-wards and there's a selection of macaroons waiting to be sampled at Pooja Dhingra's Le 15 Patisserie. Turn any corner of any suburb, and you'll hit the next branch of Mad Over Donuts.
It's just been three years since the Singapore-based doughnut franchise launched in Mumbai, and it has made us bid farewell to the greasy, cream-filled buns we earlier gorged on. "It was in 2007 that we thought the American staple would work in India," says Lokesh Bharwani, CEO, Mad Over Donuts. "It's when India woke up to the fact that a doughnut wasn't just a type of round bread with a hole in the middle."
The greatest change since has been that customers are open to snacking on doughnuts and making a meal out of them, as opposed to eating them for dessert.u00a0
The pastry 'it' crowd
Graphic designer Amrita Lekhraj, loves hosting parties. She spends hours experimenting with what she will serve her guests next. Deepa Jain of Recipe Mobile, a made-to-order firm whose specialises in Lebanese snacks and low-fat cheesecakes, has a faithful customer in Lekhraj. "I love her Lemongrass and Chocolate-Orange Cheesecakes," says 29 year-old Lekhraj. If she wanted a regular chocolate cake, she'd go to Moshe's or Theobroma's in Colaba. "But I like trying out new flavours, and I like the fact that Deepa's stuff is all healthy."u00a0
Jain, 27, makes do with desi ingredients for all her preparations. "I'd much rather use what's freshly available at the neighbourhood grocery store than rely on dried out imported stuff," she explains. Her cheesecakes are made from cottage cheese, and she uses only pure dark cooking chocolate. No compound chocolate for her.u00a0
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Spend more, eat more
While some pastry chefs make do with what they get, others don't mind spending a little extra on sourcing exotic ingredients, especially since customers don't mind spending a chunk of moolah.
That's what worked for Pooja Dhingra. The 23 year-old was looking to offer something different when she set up Le 15 Patisserie recently. "Wherever I looked, I saw just five basic American desserts. Brownies, and cheesecakes. When I went to study at Cordon Bleu in Paris, I was amazed at the pastry variety and the fact that people were willing to shell out two Euros to buy single portions," she says.
Dhingra returned to Mumbai in 2009, and decided to specialise in macaroons because no one else offered the sweet Parisian snack. La 15 does the basic flavours --u00a0 chocolate, vanilla and strawberry -- as well as the unusual Wasabi, Paan, and Chai. The Lower Parel joint also offers tarts and cupcakes. "I enjoy watching customers when they bite into a macaroon. You can tell within a second whether they are going to love it or hate it," she says.
Ingredients are definitely more accessible though prices are hardly low. "When you pay Rs 300 for 200 gm of butter, you'll obviously price the end product accordingly," says Dhingra. But the good news is that unlike 10 years ago when people refused to accept high-priced items, they now understand costs.
The cupcake story
Macaroons are catching on, but the cupcake is the current sweet tooth fix. According to Shaana Gwynn, co-owner, Butterfly, cupcakes are the most adaptable of pastries, making them soar popularity charts. "You can fill them, frost them or glaze them." For Gwynn, who launched Butterfly earlier this year, a cupcake outlet was a natural extension of a homegrown business. "Last year, I started taking orders from home. The demand got pretty crazy and I realised I had to have a separate place to make them," she laughs. The cupcakes at Butterfly range from Rs 50 to Rs 80 a piece.
"Cupcakes are a fad in Europe and America, and we are headed there too," says Aashiana Shroff of Tart on Hill Road, which also serves a mean Peanut Butter cupcake.
The cupcake isn't only eaten as a one-off dessert. In fact, mothers are replacing regular birthday cakes with giant cupcake that their babies will slice into at their swish at-home does.
"I've had orders for baby showers, bridal showers, even thematic birthday parties. I made one cupcake with faux dental equipment since the client was a dentist. The Goth-style birthday cupcake came with skulls and bones frosting," says Gwynn. Her biggest customers are mommies and college students.
"They are popular because of the visual appeal," says Shaana's loyal customer Sharmila Banerjee. The 30 year-old stylist recently called for a giant cupcake for a theme shoot she had with models. "Once we were done, I remember all of us wanted to eat the cupcake. But we were also reluctant; it felt cruel to cut up something so pretty." Banerjee is a regular at Butterfly. Her favourite flavour: the Strawberry Cream Cupcake.
The cream cheese, garnishes, sprinkles and cocoa powder for Gwynn's cupcakes come from local suppliers, though butter seems to be the roadblock with her too. "Unsalted butter is hard to come by, as are fresh berries," she complains. Despite this, Butterfly sells at least 180 of its most popular cupcakes, Red Velvet and Choc Butterfly Special, per day.
Pedder Road-based Vrinda Bhatia, who has been making cakes to order for nearly a decade, says she has switched to cupcakes that most mothers prefer to order for their children's birthdays. "They are mess-free and can be served with just a paper napkin."
"The best thing about cupcakes is that you feel you're eating an entire cake all at once. And technically, you are," says Banerjee.
Cinnabon also plans to bring in a cinnamon-flavoured cupcake next.
The veterans may not be as excited though. Yvan Carvalho, co-owner of the 85 year-old American Express Bakery at Bandra's Hill Road, says that while the current crop of pastry shops are doing well, we ought to better what's our own. "Prices are spiralling every other day. A kilo of cooking chocolate cost Rs 160 last year.
It's now Rs 250." The man behind one of Mumbai's oldest and most loved and simple bakeries wants pastry chefs to be innovative with what we already have. "Keep it simple, and improve upon our homegrown recipes. Why not better the Mawa cake?"u00a0
The handbook
How to be a pro at pastries
>>If you want to tell a good chocolate pastry from bad, rely on your tongue. If the chocolate leaves a buttery taste at the roof of your mouth, it means it was made using compound chocolate -- a blend of chocolate and vegetable fat -- not pure cocoa.
>>If you want to open your own pastry store, you ought to be ready with an investment of at least Rs 50 lakh. And it takes a little more than a year to break even, if you open well, that is.
Lost in the past
According to Kunal Vijaykar, the Marquis Cake, a French recipe, isn't available anywhere in the city today. Layered with macaroons and cream, it could well be the next big thing, if made well.
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What's coming back?
The ice-cream cake, available at Baskin Robbins, and a distant cousin of Kwality's Casatta Ice Cream, is slowly worming its way back. It even makes for a lovely frozen birthday cake.
There's an 8% annual growth in the Indian pastry market
A search for 'pastry chef jobs in mumbai' threw up 96,000 results
Deepa Jain runs Recipe Mobile, and makes low-fat cheesecakes using locally available cottage cheese. The low-fat Orange Cheesecake is made with cream containing just 25 per cent fat. Yours for Rs 850 a kilo
The Macaroons at Le15 Patisserie, Parel's new dessert station that offers an authentic French experience, come even in Paan, Chai and Wasabi flavours, and cost Rs 50 a piece.
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