1 day Ago By Shilpi Madan
Her 11 cloud kitchens across Mumbai are abundant with luscious, artisanal, seasonal, strawberry cakes this holiday season—with moist layers, and in stunning shapes—as Bunty Mahajan, the celebrity baker to Bollywood and beyond, busily lights up candles on the birthday cake of her brand, Deliciae, which completes two decades. “Careful consistency has led me to build up a faithful clientele. There are ingredient-tasting sessions every day, to keep a strong check on the quality,” says Bunty (few know her real name is Amita), who baked the dreamy 100-kg cake for the engagement ceremony of Anant Ambani with Radhika Merchant.
The ivory showstopper, arranged across nine tiers, was decorated with hundreds of wispy red flowers in keeping with the theme of the event. Her classic, decadent cakes are a favourite with Bollywood. Model-actor Malaika Arora relishes her special bond with Bunty, from the time her son Arhaan was born 22 years ago.
Filmmaker-actor Farhan Akhtar has been marking his milestone moments with her special cakes. “Perhaps a celebrity gifted a cake I made, to another, and that is how the word of mouth reference led to building a robust clientele,” says Bunty modestly. Humble beginnings can have sweet endings.
Bunty started out by selling desserts at the popular Bandra café, Out of the Blue, winning fabs with her pioneering cakes, Death by Chocolate, and Mars Haven. “These are specials that people keep asking for,” she smiles. The colours are subtle, the finishing impeccable in the shimmying crystal-shine geode cakes.
The stencil work in the fine edible lace and the finely detailed petals of every tiny, frosty rose in hundreds of clusters is perfect. “I love jewellery, and bring my passion for trinkets to the intricacy of the frosting,” she shares. Call it edible haute couture.
“I am very particular about using the best quality ingredients. Immaculate, ripe fruits are a must to qualify for Deliciae,” she says. Bunty recalls having once baked a 135-kg, seven-tiered wedding cake for a celebrity in Pune.
“The tiers were meticulously packed and carried to the city in an air-conditioned van. I assembled the cake at the venue,” she says. On another occasion, when global sports persons were being felicitated at a function at Aamby Valley near Mumbai 10 years ago, she ended up baking 400 desserts to lay out on tables to accompany each of the three meals: breakfast, lunch and dinner.
“With just two helpers, I was on my feet for two days. That’s me, I never turn down a challenge,” smiles the 69-year-old. Meanwhile her signature spinouts in Belgian chocolate, Dark chocolate ganache, Hazelnut Divine, tiramisu, and dark chocolate orange keep flying out of her studios (dotting the city) by the hundreds as the queen of cakes continues to learn, through her extensive travels across Europe.
“I love eating pastries in Austria, Paris, Germany...
and devising my own flavours,” she says. Up next are extensions of her bestsellers in sugar-free versions, with inclusions of alternate flours into her creations, as Deliciae cruises into Bengaluru with its cake artistry. Game point.
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