Authentic Rum-Based Plum Cakes in Chennai — Why They’re Rare & Why Sia Cakes Is the No.1 Choice.

As Christmas approaches in Chennai, thousands of customers begin searching for the best plum cake in Chennai, hoping to find a rich, moist, rum-soaked Christmas plum cake. But good luck finding it on supermarket shelves!

Most commercial bakeries today offer a basic “fruit cake” labelled as plum cake — dry, airy, loaded with tutti-frutti, and lacking the deep flavour of real rum-soaked fruits.

As the owner of Sia Cakes Chennai, I hear the same complaint every year:

“We tried so many plum cakes, but none of them tasted authentic… until we discovered Sia Cakes.”

Here’s why real authentic rum-based plum cakes are disappearing, and why Sia Cakes proudly keeps the recipe alive.

Watch what goes into our signature exotic plum cakes here.

Why Most Store-Bought Plum Cakes in Chennai Disappoint

If you’ve ever bought a “plum cake” from a typical bakery, you already know the struggle.

1. Not enough premium dried fruits

Many bakeries use cheap tutti-frutti instead of real dried fruits like prunes, figs, apricots, dates, cherries, raisins, and mixed berries — the key to a premium Christmas plum cake.

2. No real rum infusion

A true rum plum cake requires fruits soaked in rum for weeks or months, followed by alcohol-feeding. Commercial cakes skip this because it is time-consuming and costly. Most of them use store bought honey or canned juices.

3. Dry, crumbly texture

Real plum cake is dense, moist, rich, and melts in your mouth. Mass-produced versions feel dry because they are made with shortcuts.

4. Artificial flavouring

Many bakeries rely on rum essence, fruit essence, and caramel colour. 5. No maturing process

Authentic plum cakes must rest and mature. Large bakeries rarely have the patience to do this.

Why Authentic Homemade Plum Cake Is Rare in Chennai

Many customers wonder why more bakeries don't offer premium rum-based plum cakes. The truth is:

• Real dried fruits and berries are expensive.

• Long-term rum soaking requires planning and compliance.

• Plum cake making is extremely labour-intensive.

• Aging reduces profitability.

• Maintaining consistent quality at scale is difficult.

This is why finding a real homemade plum cake in Chennai is so rare — and why customers search for trusted names like Sia Cakes.

Why Sia Cakes Has the Best Rum-Based Plum Cake in Chennai

As the founder of Sia Cakes, my goal is to deliver the best rum plum cake in Chennai every Christmas season — one that brings back memories of traditional Anglo-Indian and Kerala-style plum cakes. We have perfected this recipe over the years through trial and error, to ensure standard taste, texture and mouth feel. And also, to satisfy all age groups.

Here’s why customers love our cake:

✅ Premium fruits soaked for months in branded rum

We use a generous mix of figs, prunes, apricots, mixed berries, raisins, dates, cherries and tutti-frutti with a secret mix of spices.

✅ Traditional alcohol-feeding method

This process gives the cake deep colour, aroma, and a rich, matured taste.

✅ Zero artificial flavours or colours

Everything is natural — making this a healthy and premium plum cake option. Of course, vanilla is an exception here.

✅ Moist, dense texture with a perfect rum kick

The ideal Christmas cake experience.

✅ Top Google reviews in Chennai for plum cakes

Customers consistently describe our cakes as:

⭐ “Super moist and rich.”

⭐ “The best plum cake I have tasted.”

⭐ “Perfectly boozy — absolutely worth the price.”

This genuine love is why our rum plum cakes sell out every December.

Pre-Order the Best Christmas Plum Cake in Chennai — Limited Batches Only!

Because our plum cakes are made with premium fruits, real rum, and a long soaking + maturing process, they are produced only in small batches.

If you want a cake that is:

✅ Rich✅ Moist✅ Truly authentic✅ Handmade✅ Loaded with fruits✅ Perfectly rum-soaked

…then this is your chance to book early.

🎄 Pre-orders for Sia Cakes’ 2025 Rum Plum Cakes are now open!

Call us or ping @9884103785

Order now to avoid missing out — our batches sell out every year.

Best Christmas plum cakes in Chennai - Sia Cakes

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Watch what goes into our Exotic Plum Cakes here

For a long time, plum cakes which we get to buy (from nearby bakeries) were those light brown cakes covered in butter paper, with lot of tutty-fruity, a few raisins, and some nuts on the top. It had a bitter flavor which many don’t prefer. Further, most of these cakes were hard and had a dry texture. For many years, I wondered where is the plum in plum cakes? It took a lot for me to realize that the real plum cakes were very different and in no way near to the ones which we were sold as “Plum cakes” for all these years, especially in India and more so in Chennai. Once you get to know the real ingredients and the recipe, it’s not difficult to understand why we have a toned-down version of plum cakes - it's simply because of the cost of making one.

Plum cakes supposedly originated in England and were one of the most important parts of the Christmas celebrations. Early days it was more of a wholesome dish with oats and meat as well, not baked but boiled. However, with the evolution in cooking techniques and availability of sophisticated devices like ovens, etc, it started to take different forms in different parts of the world. There is no clear reasoning as to why it is still called a "plum" cake. Plum actually referred to any dried fruit in the olden days. However, some still feel that plum cakes should have prunes (dried plums). The ingredients which go into the making of plum cakes are costly and so is the time and expertise required. Hence many shops have opted for cheaper variants by using canned juices and largely raisins and tutty-fruity (in India especially), which is the cheapest dry fruit available in the market today. We have different varieties of plum cakes these days and in different names and price points – Rich plum cake, Rich fruit cake, Christmas fruit cakes, Rum cakes or Dark plum cakes, etc…. so what is the difference between these and which one is authentic? To be honest, all of them may be true in their own sense. There is not much difference between these varieties when it comes to the color and taste too. These are just the names used to differentiate slight changes in flavors and how the cakes are made and largely for marketing purposes (and pricing).

But does this match with an authentic Christmas plum cake? No. Authentic plum cake recipes use some form of alcohol (rum or brandy largely, even wine) for soaking the dry fruits. What this does is that it increases the lifetime of the cake (in some cases for several months) and it also infuses real flavor to the fruits and the cakes. The cakes are made weeks before Christmas and it's feeded with alcohol for few days till Christmas. Using dark rum or flavored alcohol will enhance this effect and will also add a strong dark color to the cakes. Branded alcohol is better. Whereas fruit cakes are normally made by soaking the dry fruits in fruit juices (orange or grape) rather than alcohol. These can be made in a shorter time and are also cheaper considering the absence of alcohol. There may be differences in the kind of dry fruits used - black raisins and cherries are very common in any rich plum cakes. Further other dry fruits like figs, dates, apricots, prunes, and berries can also be used. Some variants use a mix of nuts as well especially cashew, almonds, or pecan nuts to enhance the flavor and texture. The brown color of the cake is obtained from the rum, soaked fruits, and also caramel used in the batter. In other countries, plum cakes also come with sugar frosting. However, I have not seen these variants much here in India. I prefer to dust powdered sugar on the plum cake and top it with some diced cherries.

My affection for plum cakes started when I got a chance to try a dark and rich plum cake once in Kerala. I couldn’t find a similar one anywhere in Chennai or for that matter even in Mumbai. Most of the bakeries in Chennai have a very hard variant of the plum cake which largely has tutty-fruity and some raisins. However, recently some of the bakery chains and the supermarkets have introduced the rich plum cake and they are priced very high. In recent years, the rich plum cakes have taken a back seat in Kerala as well. The Kerala bakeries have started to sell pudding cakes instead which are cheaper and equally tasty with different flavors like dates, carrot, banana, etc).

The hunt for a real authentic plum cake continued and I just couldn’t find a genuine one that was soft, rich, and full of flavors, busting in your mouth the moment you take a bite. This is when I thought of making one myself. There are thousands of recipes for plum cakes available online and hence to know which is authentic and at the same time tasty was a big task in itself. But after several attempts and trials, we figured out a recipe that gave an output as good as the one we had in Kerala years before. This is the same recipe that we use at Sia Cakes in two variants.

The Rich fruit cakes are made by soaking the dry fruits (Golden and black raisins, cherry, tutty-fruity, dates) in juice rather than in alcohol. These are ready-made and will be available all time throughout the year.

The exotic plum cakes are made using some exotic dry fruits (including mixed berries like cranberries, blueberries etc, prunes, fig, orange peel, apricots) along with raisins, cherries and dates soaked in branded alcohol (Rum). The cakes are made to mature through alcohol feeding process to elevate its flavour, texture and color. These are limited in quantity and available only during Christmas time. We use high-quality ingredients for our cakes and both plum and fruit cakes don’t have any other artificial colors or fruit flavors. We use a specially made spice mix which blends well with these flavours and enhances its richness and taste. While the texture and softness of the cakes are largely similar, both have a very distinct flavor and taste, which you can’t resist after one bite. These are available in 400 gms and 800 gms packs and will be a perfect gift for your families and friends too. So instead of more stories, why don’t you order one and experience these wonderful tasty cakes and make this Christmas special !!

Contact 9884103785 for your orders !!

Please visit contacts page for more details.

Hi There ! Ready to eat real cakes ?

Everyone would have tried baking fresh cakes using a stove or electric oven some point of time in their life. Even if the cake would have turned out bad, the memories - be it licking the cake mixture leftovers, the lovely fragrance of vanilla as the cake gets baked and the overall experience remain with us forever. Who can forget the first cake their mom baked for them at home ? Yes, it was a special occasion always.

With the entry of fresh cream frostings and fondants, easy availability of various products related to the same, people have slowly forgotten the taste of real cake. Buying, baking, liking or eating cakes because of the look of the frosting is like reviewing or reading a book because you like the font or the front cover. All we want now is more colors, flavors, themes and creativity than its quality.

We have been buying cakes from several branded bakeries in Chennai for various occasions. Oflate, we noticed most of the fresh cream cakes had more cream than the cake content. A 1 KG cake hardly has 500 gms of cake in it. Am sure you would have experienced the same too. This did not reduce the price of the cake anyway...it only increased. The focus on fresh cream cakes or fondants have become so much that we hardly get to see regular cakes in most of the bakeries these days.

Add to this, the quality of the ingredients and other artificial flavors and preservatives are always a concern. Some of the branded regular cakes available in the super-markets have expiry dates beyond 2 months. There is no way a cake can remain good or so long without chemical preservatives.

This was the motivation behind baking our own cakes. Last few years, we have been baking our own cakes at home for all occasions. Yes, we do make some frosting cakes for special occasions like Christmas or birthdays. But for any other day, its been the age old simple cake recipes. This lead to the birth of Sia Cakes... as we wanted to offer these simple, fresh and healthy cakes made with high quality ingredients available to you for reasonable rates.

We are sure you and your children will be amazed with the taste and quality of these cakes.

Be it having a piece along with a cup of tea, or packing few as snacks for your children to school or offering the same to your guests - we have one for all your occasions and needs. We are committed to bring back those lovely memories of having a real and freshly baked cake back to you. That said, you can also try out our fresh cream (more cakey) celebration cakes too !!

Apart from cakes, we also have some yummy brownies and cookies for order. So what are you waiting for, browse our menu and order with us right away !!

Do visit our contacts page for more details about the ordering process !