Christmas celebrations: Here are three ways to throw party without making huge investment

While the word can sound vaguely like a tongue twister, this just means ‘Christmas cake’ in Japanese! Hailing from Japan, Kurisamasu Keki consists of a sponge cake, wrapped lovingly in a blanket of whipped cream and garnished with red strawberries. The ingredients are rather simple, the real magic of this cake lies in the decoration.

Originating from the city of Allahabad, this desi rum fruit cake is synonymous with Christmas in India. Although at first glance, this cake shares a marked resemblance to the British Christmas fruitcake in appearance and ingredients (both cakes have rum-drenched fruits and almonds), Allahabadi cake does have a delicious desi twist- butter is replaced with ghee and spices like nutmeg, ginger, javitri (mace) give the cake the iconic sweet, yet tangy flavour.

This cake also shares some resemblance with the British cake (yay colonisation!) The cake is known for its sumptuous and strong taste due to ingredients like rum-soaked fruits like raisins and prunes, cane molasses, and bittersweet caramel.

This cake is a whole meal by itself. It consists of three layers. The marquesote or cake is prepared by mixing wheat flour and cornmeal, along with cocoa powder, cinnamon, and milk. This is followed by covering the cake with a thick paste consisting of rum, raisin, and prunes. The cake is then baked. Before serving the cake is decorated with a layer of manjar, or a thick custard comprising of milk and cinnamon, and raisins!

The cake is deceptively simple but absolutely irresistible. The foundation consists of a crispy meringue with a soft interior. It is then layered generously with whipped cream and topped off with seasonal fruits! The origins of this cake are a bone of contention between Aussies and New Zealanders!

Despite its name, the cake is very much Russian. This cake is usually humongous. It consists of at least eight tiers of alternating layers of pastry and custard! During the Russian Revolution, the eggs and butter were temporarily replaced with margarine, but eventually, the cake returned to its elaborate and fabulous recipe!

Also known as buche de Noel, this cake resembles a sturdy piece of lumber. It consists of a simple sponge cake which is doused with some pastry cream and shaped into a cylinder. It is then coated with chocolate buttercream. Some engraving is done with a fork to make it resemble a tree trunk.

As they say old is gold. This is the OG rum/fruitcake. The cake is made from a rich batter of eggs and butter. To this is added a generous helping of glazed fruits such as cherries, raisins, almonds, etc. The fruits are drenched with brandy or rum. The cake is said to have appeared in the 17th century.

This is a poppy-seed cake. The seeds are ground to a fine paste and used to form delicate, black swirls all over the cake. Sometimes other traditional cake ingredients like apricot, walnuts, and raisins are also used in more flamboyant variations of the cake.