Christmas means cake. Birthday means cake. Cakes have become a must-have ingredient even in various festivals. But when did Christmas cake become popular in the Indian subcontinent? The time was 140 years ago in 1883.
This is what Indian businessman Prakash Mambali has claimed. He told the BBC the story of making the first Christmas cake in India. Prakash Mambali is the nephew of the person who made the cake.
He said that the first Christmas cake was made in India in 1883. It was ordered by the Scottish spice merchant Murdoch Brown.
The events of November 1883. British rule was going on in India at that time. An Indian businessman named Mambali Bapu owned a bakery called ‘Royal Biscuit Factory’ in the present state of Kerala, South India.
One day Murdoch Brown went to Mambali Bapu’s shop and asked if he could make a Christmas cake. Brown also tried to give Bapu an idea about the process of making a cake he had brought from faraway Britain. Brown had a huge cinnamon plantation in the then state of Malabar.