KATHMANDU: Enthusiastic children and women from various walks of life participated in the cake mixing ceremony at Hotel Annapurna, Durbar Marg on November 22, marking the advent of Christmas season.

Donned in toque and aprons, the event saw children from Nepal Youth Foundation and other female guests posing around for photos and having fun under the sun before the event started.

When it was time of cake mixing, the children merrily mixed various ingredients required to make the traditional plum cake. They mixed the rich dry ingredients — sultana, black currant, peanut, pistachio nuts, black raisin, almond, dried cherry, cinnamon powder and others — as per the instructions given by Situ Ratna Sthapit, Executive Sous Chef Pastry of the hotel.

Seventh grader Rupesh Kumar, who was at the venue representing Nepal Youth Foundation, felt “awesome and fun to be a part of the cake mixing”. He shared, “When you do things with a group of people it’s really interesting.”

To make the mixture perfect, it was time to add liquor and the women present there poured rum in the dry mix of Christmas Cake. Baba Sarkar Shrestha, President of Active Women of Nepal, was one of them and she was enjoying at the ceremony. “It’s fun taking someone else’s culture forward and being a part of cake mixing makes me realise Christmas is here,” expressed Shrestha who likes “the flavour of plum pudding as it gives a refreshing taste — like the feeling you get after you eat paan”.

With the popularity of Christmas festival in the Capital in recent years, the traditions associated with it — like cake mixing — too have begun to get people’s attention. Nonetheless, sharing its significance, Sthapit opined, “The ingredients for the Christmas cake should be fermented for it’s taste and flavour. That is why they are mixed a few weeks prior to Christmas.”

But that is not all — “it is believed that luck will follow those who are involved in cake mixing ceremony or who eat the Christmas Cake. Cake making ceremony moreover signals the holiday spirit,” he added.