Gearing up with culinary customisations for the regional New Years, the city is all set for a new season of taste!

Unlike the New Year’s the world unanimously celebrates at the end of December, Indian culture gives us reason to start over and resolve to new beginnings even in the middle of April. With most of India celebrating either Tamil Puthandu, Vishu, Vaisakhi, Poila Boishakh, Bishuva Sankranti, here are few ways in which Coimbatoreans are reinventing traditional Indian sweets and giving them a tinge of novelty. From hotels to home bakers we give you a spread of indulgences that promise a gratifying new start. 

Sugar rush-malai
The mere mention of a cake fusion with this Bengali delicacy is enough to get your taste buds tingling. This Poila Boishakh, bring home the love of angoori rasmalai in the form of a three-layered cake from Dolcie by Arti Shroff. Studded with dried rose petals, almonds, and pistachios, the eggless sponge cake is made using grounded Indian spices like cardamom and nutmeg and infused with rich saffron cream in between layers. If you thought the ras in the rasmalai was missing, take a bite till you figure the sponge held it in is optimally sugar soaked.

Price per kilogram at Rs 1,400. 

Burfi’s law
If your love for burfi is as pure as that of the innocent Ranbir Kapoor in Barfi!, then reevaluate it with Lemon Tree Hotel’s offering. Executive chef Suresh B’s milk burfi with saffron-infused rabri is sure to get your new year off with a culminating start. Served in a martini glass, this chilled rabri remains traditional with the season’s flavours of cardamom and saffron. Those with a sweet tooth can pick on the golden burfi that’s garnished with pistachio and almond shavings to dip it in rabri, creating a bonanza of sweetness.

Available as a dessert in their buffet spread at Citrus Café and Restaurant from Rs 750.

Slip me five!
The Tamils may have tasted heaven’s elixir with the traditional Panchamritham recipe but do try Bharani Raj’s creations at Bunny’s Healthy Baking. Chug their Panchamritham shots that are cupped in a healthy millet flour kova cake-base. This dessert is sweetened with brown and coconut sugars and flavoured with saffron and pistachio. A chilled dessert, the shots are made from crunchy dry fruits, kalkand, honey, cardamom, dates, traditional pacha karpooram (Borneo camphor) and seasonal bananas picked from Palani and Dindigul. 

Available in a pack of six 50-75gms shot glasses at Rs 75.

Loco about cocoa
Sure, everyone loves their gulab jamuns and chocolate. For the love of both, Ponni Murugesh has curated the ultimate jamun chocolate cupcakes and three-layered cakes that would steal hearts. Soaked in a sugar syrup infused with cardamom, these Devil’s Chocolate cupcakes are layered with jamuns on top and garnished with almonds and pistachios over the whipped cream. Balanced between the bitterness of the dark chocolate and sugar rush from the gulab jamuns, this promises to be one flavourful bite. 

Available for a minimum order of 10 cupcakes of Rs 35 each. Layered cake at Rs 850.

Nuts about you
If you are earnest about staying cool this summer— then this fusion of conventional and exotic recipes from Latha’s Kitchen Studio, should grab your attention. While following the recipe of a normal cheesecake using a crust of crushed biscuits and melted butter, add gulkand (rose petal paste), saffron, powdered cashews and melted white chocolate (if preferred) along with your cream cheese filling, suggests Latha. A spin-off on the traditional Rajasthani summer drink, this thandai cheesecake should leave you inspired for more such experiments in the kitchen.