Pat a cake Pat a cake Bakers WOman
Reading about food history on cakes dates you back to the 17th century when cake baking began in Europe. An improvisation on the bread, cakes evolved over time and age and has grown to be one of the most preferred food for celebrations and occasions starting from religious ceremonies to birthdays, weddings, holidays, funerals and so on. Interestingly cakes were all round in shape earlier probably denoting endless affection like the shape from one person to another.
Gradually over the years, stamped on top of the cake was the message of the person who gifted the cake or baked the cake. Coincidentally, cake baking was one of the important tasks of a family and the woman of the house was in charge of baking the cake. Probably because the woman was in charge of the kitchen and she chose to experiment and innovate in the kitchen. Endless recipes of cakes probably flowed out from her innovative skills. Over the ages, baking grew to be a skill and a homely business for many women entrepreneurs who chose to stay home or take a break from their careers. A complex art by itself baking requires a lot of patience, organization, creativity, accuracy, attention to details and dedication. Virtues of the woman, writers would say.. and qualities that the provider of the homemaker. As industrialization cadenced, men took over this role and baking went into larger setups dominated by males. Huge furnaces and machines were used and hence the need for men. Wonder whether from here on grew the popularity of the rhyme that glorified the baker’s man…..pat a cake, pat a cake….
In one of the South Indian cities, Mangalore, food was cooked using an identical skill by women and continues to be a strong domain with the Bunt women in particular. Women cook sweet dishes like the Ghenda da adde, for instance, using coal and in furnaces that used firewood then. A sweet dish or a cake was cooked on special occasions and is made out of rice and cucumber and jaggery and other ingredients. A complex process, this cake is very unusual in taste and is one of the traditional recipes down South India. Likewise was another sweet dish like the mania which is made out of rice and coconut milk and jaggery and other ingredients, considered very healthy. In shapes that are round, these were delicacies of Mangalore and seldom do we find them being cooked in homes today. This Woman’s Day, thought I must make it a point to speak to one such Bunt lady who has balanced both the modern and the traditional, the Western and the Eastern as I gallantly stepped into her house and ordered for a cake: both the Western and the Eastern as celebrating Womanhood also means celebrating modernity and tradition! Happy Woman’s Day !!!
