Christmas price rise takes the cake - Spiralling cost of ingredients to pinch festive pocket at home and in shop

OH DEAR!: The Kookie Jar Christmas platter will cost more Hot cakes could take on a whole new meaning this Christmas, thanks to red-hot prices. If inflation robbed the rasogolla and barfi of some of their sweetness during Puja and Diwali, rising prices are set to play party-pooper again in the season of plum pudding and peach pie. “Sugar was Rs 15-16 per kg last year, it is now Rs 38 a kg. A 500gm butter packet is priced Rs 110, against Rs 75 last year. How do I stick to my budget?” asks 83-year old Eunice Pereira, whose home-made fruit cakes are popular among family and friends. Eggs, the staple of cakes, have also become dearer, as have garnishing ingredients like cashew nuts, raisins and almonds. Flour, which was Rs 12 per kg, now costs 19 per kg while suji costs Rs 9 more a kg than last year’s price. Eunice may be forced to bake fewer cakes than last year to reduce costs. “It is festival time, you have to manage somehow. But last year I had baked 32 cakes and this time I may end up baking only 22-23,” she says. For those who prefer to buy rather than bake their Christmas cake, the price pinch could be even more. Kookie Jar, which did not hike prices last year to go easy on the downturn-spooked customers, is planning to increase prices of some items by Rs 5 to Rs 50 this Christmas. “Butter has not only become expensive but scarce, too. The prices of all ingredients have gone up by at least 20 per cent in the past six months. But we do not want to upset our customers; so we have kept the prices of the pop picks for Christmas — chocolate cakes, truffle cakes and assorted chocolates — the same,” explains Lovey Barman of Kookie Jar. However, the prices of some Christmas specialities like the Kookie Jar Dundee Cake and Yule Log have gone up. Nahoum’s in New Market has also hiked prices. “I buy brownies and cakes from Nahoum’s every year before Christmas. But I have found that their prices have increased quite a bit,” rues homemaker Paulami Roy. “The prices of ingredients have increased, and so we have had to proportionately hike the prices of all our confectionery products by 10-15 per cent since November 15,” says J. Haldar, the manager of Nahoum and Sons. A 400gm Nahoum’s Plum Cake now costs Rs 135, against Rs 120 at this time last year. The Fruit Cake comes for Rs 170 and brownies and Black Forest cost Rs 22 per piece, all up by 10 to 15 per cent. “Whatever the price, we have to buy because fruit cake is a must for Christmas,” says homemaker Arundhuti Mukherjee. Flurys, on Park Street, has promised not to raise the prices of its Christmas cakes, puddings, pies, breads and cookies despite ingredients costing more. “The increase in the prices of ingredients is being absorbed by us,” said P.N. Singh of Flurys. Cakes, another city confectionery chain, had increased prices six months ago. “Since then, prices of ingredients have increased by at least 15 per cent. But we have not decided on a further increase,” said Salim Naushad.