Festive Season: Where to Buy the Best Plum Cake

Bijou Cafe, Saibaba Colony

A decorated red tin box comes with plum cake, assorted cookies and festive cheer. Coated with a thin layer of flat icing, the plum cake has a mixed topping of dry fruits, which makes the cake look festive. The plum cake is light, balanced, and I could taste the cake and the rum-soaked fruits (used in moderation) together without it feeling heavy.

There’s plum cake as well as a curated assortment of artisan cookies, each handmade after several weeks of testing. The result is about 15 varieties including chocolate crinkle cookies, matcha and white chocolate, red velvet and white chocolate, orange-cranberry cookies, Snickers Doodles coated in cinnamon sugar, sesame cookies and festive shapes like Santa Boots. Each tin provides a mix of two to three pieces of each flavour.

“There are no shortcuts, no artificial flavours, essences or preservatives,” says Kirthana Sendilkumar, founder of Bijou Café & Grill, located on Alagesan Road, Saibaba Colony. For a café celebrating its first Christmas, preparation for the first plum cake began in November the old-fashioned way with soaking the fruit, hand-baked cookies and Christmas music playing in the background. “The dried fruits were soaked in rum for about a month beforehand, allowing the flavors to mature naturally. We also did a soaking ceremony with the entire staff and posted the video on our Instagram page, marking the beginning of our first festive season.”

Kirtan’s own Christmas memories were shaped in pastry kitchens abroad, where December meant long walks, Christmas songs on loop and trays of cookies coming in and out of the oven. “That’s what Christmas feels like to me, with music playing all day and baking non-stop.” This year, for the first time, she brought that memory home, with the café decorated in red and green, the windows painted with festive pictures, and Christmas decorations at every corner. “This is the first time for me that I have decorated a café for Christmas,” she says. “It has become a memory in itself.” Their focus is on keeping the traditions alive. “This is our first Christmas,” she says, “we just wanted to do it right.”

Rich Plum Cake is priced at ₹699 plus taxes for 500 grams and ₹1299 plus taxes for 1 kg. The Festive Cookies Box comes at ₹499 plus taxes. Different flavored bags (Red Velvet, Matcha Grinch, Orange & Cranberry, X-Mas Sugar, Candy Cane, Chocolate Crinkle, Snickerdoodles, Sesame) are priced at ₹299 plus tax. Bijou is hosting an end-of-the-year market on December 28 from 11am to 7pm. Call 8925905037 to book a stall and pre-order cakes and cookies.

Cafe Diam, Coonoor

At this unique café in Coonoor, which opens with spectacular views of the valley and tea gardens, every roti tells a story. Plum Cakes are handmade with the finest ingredients for a rich, delicious Christmas celebration. “Mixing the cakes is an annual ritual. The fruits soaked in rum and wine are passed around year after year, allowing their flavor to deepen. This time, even the district collector, Lakshmi Bhavya Tanneru IAS, joined the tradition,” says Radhika Shastri, who left her corporate career and moved to the mountains.

The plum cake is beautifully moist, gets better with age, and is filled with apricots, cranberries, blackberries, pistachios, dates, almonds, spices, candied ginger and citrus peel – all soaked in rum for an entire year. Although it is a little spicy, the flavor is deep, exactly what one might expect from a classic plum cake. The quality of the ingredients shines without any overly artificial essence, and the sweetness is just right. “The result is a cake that has the best ingredients and the love of the people of Nilgiri who participated in the annual cake mixing ceremony. They enjoy the experience of mixing dried fruits, and spices like cinnamon nutmeg and lots of rum,” says Radhika.

Available in packs of half and one kilo. The price is ₹630 and ₹1050 including taxes. Courier charges will be extra depending on the location and weight of the cake. Call 9845001111/9663849639.

Treat Factory, Ramanathapuram

CB Soumya, a home baker who sells goods from a cloud kitchen called Treat Factory, came up with her plum cake recipe after a lot of trial and error. “I wanted to introduce plum cakes baked in the traditional, European way,” says Soumya, whose kitchen is located at Sripathy Nagar in Ramanathapuram in the city. He soaked 15 types of nuts and dried fruits in rum to cook plum cake this year after Christmas last year.

“I also offer a non-alcohol version in which, once the order is placed, I soak the nuts and dried fruits in orange juice,” she says. Saumya’s version also includes orange peel, which gives it the concentration of spices as well as a slight spiciness. Another change they have incorporated is using jaggery instead of jaggery made from sugar. The jaggery obtained from jaggery has a deep gold and nutty quality, which adds more flavor to the cake.

A 250 gram plum cake costs ₹500. To order, visit them on Instagram @the_treat_factory,treatfactory.in

Akila Kannadasan

Choco Choza, Race Course

Although a lot has changed at Choco Choza since its founding in 1998, the founders like to keep some things true to tradition. This includes their Royal Plum Cake for which the nuts and dried fruits are left to mature for a year. The cakes are cooked at a low temperature so that they can absorb the flavors of the spices and dry fruits. The main thing is that they avoid tutti frutti, hydrogenated fats and artificial colors or flavours.

Part of their Christmas offerings is also stoal maal, a traditional bread filled with dried fruits, nuts and spices. Then there is plum pudding, a classic dish; Yule rolls long with chocolate cream; Christmas Plum Gelato; And of course, ginger bread man cookies.

The price of half kilogram plum cake is Rs 945. Located at 10, West Club Road, Race Course, Gopalapuram. Call 8220400100.

Akila Kannadasan

published – December 25, 2025 07:47 PM IST