Aloft Kathmandu Thamel hosted its annual cake-mixing ceremony on Tuesday. The ceremony was held at the hotel’s Nilgiri’s Skye Lounge and had in attendance representatives of leading business houses, socialities, and spouses of diplomats. During the event, guests helped mix a dozen different types of dry fruits with five different types of liquor and juices.

“Traditionally, the cake-mixing ceremony marks the start of the Christmas celebration and is organised between 40 to 60 days before the festival,” says Vikram Singh, general manager of Aloft Kathmandu Thamel. “We have been hosting the ceremony annually, and the event has always served as an opportunity for us to get people together and spread joy and laughter.”

Rajeev Shrestha, the hotel’s executive chef, and his team will let the mixture of dry fruits, liquor, and juices ferment for three weeks.

“Once the fermentation process is done, we will add other ingredients like flour, sugar, eggs, etc., to the mixture and stabilise it. We will then make Christmas cakes and puddings and pies,” says Shrestha. “In total, we will make around 100 kgs of baked items, and we will send them to our guests and various non-profit social organisations that we contribute to as part of our corporate social responsibility (CSR).”