PUNE: Giving competition to the traditional plum and wine cakes this Christmas season are cakes and cookies that boast of ‘healthy’ ingredients like oatmeal. Pune’s age-old bakeries, most of which are concentrated in Camp, are also improvising in a bid to attract customers, the Purple Velvet Cake being the latest to give tough competition to Red Velvet Cake.

“Our ingredients are different from others. We have also introduced Purple Velvet Cake, which is something to look forward to,” said Yusuf Mirdehghan from Husseny Bakery, which marks its 86th year this month.

Different varieties of sweets apart from plum cakes are also competing for space. “We have seasonal varieties and Christmas goodies, which include jujubes and marzipan. We have recently added guava cheese to the menu,” informed Hassan Yaveri from Pasteur Dairy, who is the third generation from his family in the business.

Apart from traditional Christmas goodies, people are leaning towards the healthier options. Imperial Bakery has introduced oatmeal cookies in their traditional menu, adding to the healthy trend. “Oatmeal cookies are quite well known from our menu. We have also introduced Red Velvet Mava Cake,” said Farokh Irani, who believes that changes are needed to stay in the market.

NEW BAKERIES VS OLD
With new bakeries opening up, youngsters prefer trendy cakes and confectioneries. The old bakeries may be famous for their conventional items, but the new bakeries are attracting customers with their fashionable baking. Even though the young generation prefer designer cakes, the old bakeries have a loyal customer line, who prefer traditional and authenticity.

Mohammad Jafari from Naaz Bakery showed concern about losing clientele since last 2 years due to new cafes who have started cafes plus bakery trend.